Agriculture and Livestock Development Cabinet Secretary (CS) Mutahi Kagwe has announced a nationwide crackdown on milk hawking, warning that the unregulated sale of raw milk poses serious public health risks and continues to undermine Kenya’s formal dairy industry.
Speaking during the flagging off of bulk milk coolers for dairy cooperatives in Nairobi, Kagwe said the government will move aggressively to streamline milk distribution and strengthen traceability systems across the dairy value chain. “Milk hawking must stop. It is dangerous, it is a health issue, and it destroys the ability to create value‑added dairy products,” he declared.
The CS cautioned that millions of Kenyans consume milk sold through informal channels that cannot be traced, tested, or verified for safety. According to the ministry, milk sold directly by brokers and hawkers often bypasses cooling, inspection, and quality assurance systems, exposing consumers to contamination and disease outbreaks. Kagwe particularly warned families with young children against consuming unregulated milk, noting the risk of diarrhoea and other health complications.
Kenya remains one of Africa’s leading milk producers, yet a significant share of the product is distributed through informal traders operating outside regulated collection and processing systems. The government says this dominance of brokers and hawkers has weakened cooperatives, frustrated processors, and denied farmers opportunities to benefit from value‑added products such as yoghurt, cheese, and milk powder.
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Farmers Urged To Embrace Traceable Supply Chains
Under the planned reforms, processors and cooperatives will be required to strengthen traceability mechanisms by maintaining records of milk sources, farmer production volumes, and product movement through the supply chain.
The government has also rolled out the dairy support programme involving the distribution of 230 milk coolers valued at Sh1.43 billion to cooperatives nationwide. So far, 95 coolers have been distributed, with the remaining units to be rolled out in phases.
Kagwe added that the government is pursuing measures to reduce production costs, including promoting local cultivation of yellow maize and soya beans for animal feed. He also highlighted the scaling up of subsidised sexed semen, which has reduced costs from Sh9,000 to about Sh1,000, to improve dairy genetics and increase high‑yield cow populations.
Kagwe said the reforms are intended to improve food safety standards, strengthen formal market systems while dismantling informal networks that have dominated the sector for years to ensure farmers earn more from dairy production while protecting consumers from unsafe products.
By Masaki Enock
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