The Department of Fisheries (DoF) under the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development (MLFD) has the role of safeguarding the sustainability of the fisheries resources and secure the safety of fisheries products. Under the DoF is the Fish Inspection and Quality Assurance section that is mandated to ensure sustainable production, utilization and marketing of safe and high quality fish and fishery products. The Fisheries Regulation and the structure of the fish inspection were reviewed in 1999/2000 due to pressure from the European Union and a ban of import of all fish products from Kenya into the European market. At that time an intensive training was also conducted for the Fish Inspectors in Kenya in order to secure future access to the country’s main marketing areas. For the last 10 years no recruitment has taken place in the public sector due to pressure from the World Bank and consequently the number of authorised (gazetted) Fish inspectors has decreased. The official fish quality assurance system relies heavily on the authorised Fish inspectors and therefore the need for recruitment and further training has been identified.
In 2006 an informal meeting took place between DoF and a representative of the United Nations University - Fisheries Training Program (UNU-FTP) in Iceland, where DoF expressed interest in developing a short course in Quality Management of fish processing in co-operation with Moi University in Kenya. The course is intended to upgrade the knowledge and skills of the Fish inspectors in the country and strengthen the capacity of Moi University and DoF to train new inspectors. In November 2006 a person from the UNU-FTP visited Kenya to select possible candidates for the UNU-FTP in Iceland and to further discuss how the UNU-FTP in Iceland could assist in establishing the above mentioned course. As a result it was decided to send a delegation of specialists from one of the partners of the UNU-FTP, the company Matís - Food Research, Innovation & Safety in Iceland, to Kenya to make preliminary studies of the training need and to draft a course outline.
Following the meetings in Kenya and Iceland a course goals and outlines were written, and due to the nature of the subject it was decided to seek cooperation with FAO in relation to the Custom Training Courses (CTC) project of FAO and the Government of Iceland. In order to bring the un-gazetted inspectors up to date (with gazetted inspector) it was decided to have the training course in two part: basic part for un-gazetted inspectors, and advanced part for the gazetted once. In June 2008 the course was run for the first time in Kenya with over 20 participants.
Target group:
Fish inspectors in Kenya
Main goals and objectives:
- To strengthen the capacity of Fish inspectors engaged in official inspections in Kenya
- To develop the capacity of MoiUniversity and DoF to provide future training courses for Fish inspectors and extensionists in quality management and quality assurance practices
- To provide training to assistant inspectors in areas which have been covered in post graduate courses for authorised inspectors
- To improve knowledge and skills of Fish inspectors in Kenya in the following areas:
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- new food processing technology
- new EU regulations concerning fish control, fish safety and fish traceability
- risk analysis
- HACCP systems
- ethics and enforcement procedures in fish inspection
- emerging microbiological and chemical risks
- sampling techniques and valuation of results
Mr. Margeir Gissurarson (MATIS/UNU-FTP)
Mr. Franklin Georgsson (MATIS/UNU-FTP)
Dr. Tall Amadou (FAO)
Dr. Lahsen Ababouch (FAO)
Mr. David Lucega (Moi University)
Ms. Leah Cherop (Moi University)
Mr. Elijah Oyoo (Moi University)
Mr. Daniel N. Mungai (Fisheries Department)
Courses (content): Please contact the UNU-FTP for permission to review the course material
- Basic course (permission required)
- Advanced course (permission required)
