By: Maryann Kindiki- CCP, Kenya

Kenya is in top gear in its preparations for World Food Safety Day 2024.

On 30 April the national planning committee convened to engage media for a briefing on the theme of this year’s World Food Safety Day commemoration. This is aimed at guiding the media on the theme to ensure informed reporting.

The planning committee is chaired by the Ministry of Health and comprises government agencies, academia and research, private sector alliances and associations, media and development partners. The commemoration will take place in a series of activities including a breakfast meeting for high level government officials to garner their support in food safety initiatives. Experts in various fields will discuss food safety, focusing on the theme on radio and TV shows. Hashtags for social media will be developed to increase sensitization across the board.  All these activities will be held prior to the celebration week. 

Kenya plans to hold weeklong celebrations starting with market clean ups, followed by a 3-day conference by way of panel discussions focusing on various thematic areas selected to demystify the theme ‘Food safety: Prepare for the unexpected.’  The climax will be on 7 June 2024 with a hybrid commemoration bringing together senior government officials, government agencies, private sector alliances and the development partners.

The planning and actualization of this year’s World Food Safety Day celebrations is supported by the Government of Kenya, development partners such us Micro Enterprise Support Programme Trust (MESPT), TradeMark Africa (TMA), the Danish Embassy in Kenya and the World Food Programme (WFP) among others. More engagement is being carried out to bring on board more development partners.

This year’s celebration is expected to yield significant results aimed at strengthening food safety resilience and preparedness, which include:

• Increased Awareness and Understanding
• Knowledge Sharing and Capacity Building
• Strengthened Collaboration and Partnerships

Read more

World Food Safety Day website
World Food Safety Day Communication Toolkit
World Good Safety Day Trello board
World Food Safety Day asset bank

Photo © KEBS