In 2025, Kenya demonstrates why scientists plead for evidence-based pest control policies, as the country succumbs to misinformation with devastating consequences.

Kenya’s politically motivated ban on eight pesticides is ravaging exports, slashing food production, and sparking Africa’s highest food price surge this year.

The country follows Sri Lanka’s path toward famine and economic collapse, yet shows no signs of stopping due to the influence of extravagantly funded activists.

These activists present themselves as saviours from mass poisoning to raise donations, but their dishonesty is staggering. Take Chlorothalonil, one of the world’s most widely used fungicides.

In Kenya, it protects crops from potato blight, coffee berry disease, wheat rust, and numerous other threats.

Activists targeted Chlorothalonil precisely because it’s widely used, testing vegetables to show detectable residues. However, since no one cares about residues less toxic than coffee, they needed to present it as poisonous.

Through press releases and briefings, they deceived journalists and the public, claiming residues came from a “highly hazardous pesticide” (HHP).

This was false. Kenya prohibits HHP sales to farmers (except rat poison) because few follow the application instructions. Chlorothalonil isn’t an HHP.

When ingested, extensive testing shows it’s non-toxic, though it can cause eye irritation less severe than laundry detergent. The WHO classifies it as Class 2 Moderately Hazardous.

But “toxic HHPs” generate more donations, so activists created their own classification, relabeling Chlorothalonil as an HHP. To manufacture toxicity, they invoked cancer. Chlorothalonil isn’t carcinogenic or even probably carcinogenic.

It sits in IARC’s Class 2b, indicating possible but unproven cancer risk—the same classification coffee has held for 25 years.

By contrast, hot beverages and red meat are Class 2a “probable” carcinogens, while bacon and sausages are Class 1 established carcinogens.

The activists’ “toxic cancer risk” equals coffee – except hot coffee is riskier than Chlorothalonil. For this fabricated threat, Kenya’s vegetable exports halved as producers lost disease control.

Coffee exports plummet as coffee berry disease spreads. Fall Armyworm resurges alongside Maize Lethal Necrosis virus.

The deception continues. Activists cite European bans as proof of danger, ignoring that the EU’s 2019 Green Deal commits to halving pesticide use regardless of safety data.

Since 2009, Europe has allowed precautionary bans without evidence of harm. Chlorothalonil remains one of dozens of EU precautionary bans, sparking farmer protests, while US farmers still use it based on actual health data.

As food losses mount and the truth emerges, Kenya faces Sri Lanka’s fate: spiralling prices, starving families, and economic havoc.  

The writer is a Farmer and the CEO of the Fresh Produce Consortium of Kenya.