In Swahili, they’re called dawa (“medicine”). Yet the pesticides used on fruits and vegetables in rural Kenya have not been known to promote good health among growers. “Some sting the nose and make it hard to breathe,” said Mary Wambui, a grower in Gichonjo, Kirinyaga County, a region in the center of the country dominated by Mount Kenya. In the foothills of the extinct volcano, agriculture has by far been the most important activity, with thousands of smallholder producers growing both subsistence crops or crops for the local market (corn, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes) and cash crops destined for export (coffee and tea, of course, but also green beans, peas, etc.).
The land is fertile and the climate good. Still, as is true everywhere in the tropics, pests abound. So growers regularly “spray” their crops. “And each time, if it touches your skin, then it itches, and it’s the same for your eyes,” said a neighbor, Alexander Njogu, rubbing his arm and pointing to his eyes to make his point.
While the volume of pesticides used per hectare has remained low, compared with European usage for example, the proportion of products considered toxic is much higher in Kenya. As a result, 76% of the overall stock has been classified as containing “highly hazardous pesticides,” due to the health and environmental threat they pose. Indeed, almost half of them (44%) are banned within the European Union (EU), according to a study published in September 2023 by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, which has ties to the German Greens.
In this East African country, the economic powerhouse of its region, the problem is well known, even at the highest levels of the government. In mid-March, National Assembly Deputy Speaker Gladys Shollei, who has long been committed to this issue, called yet again for regulations on the products that are allowed. In recent years, a handful of chemicals have been banned, but many that she has described as “cancer-causing” have remained in use. In 2023, the government’s plant health inspection agency, KEPHIS, launched an investigation into the link between these chemicals and the increase in cancer cases around Mount Kenya.
The smallholder farmers who make up the bulk of Kenyan agriculture − far outstripping the few modern, commercial farms − have been handling these toxic products without any protection whatsoever. They can be easily spotted along dirt roads carrying 20-liter sprayers on their backs, spraying their plots with their feet planted in the dirt, wearing T-shirts and not even a mask. According to the Heinrich Böll Foundation, only one farmer in six uses protective equipment.
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