By KPC Reporter
Kenya’s soils are losing vitality, its rivers are carrying toxic chemical loads downstream, and pollinator populations are in decline, according to a new report by Greenpeace Africa.
The report has warned of an escalating but largely invisible environmental crisis driven by Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs) and weak monitoring systems.
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Titled Food or Poison? The Cost of Highly Hazardous Pesticides to Africa’s Food Security, the report documents widespread contamination across Kenya, Ghana and South Africa.
It shows how pesticides including chlorpyrifos, glyphosate, imidacloprid and atrazine are accumulating in soils, water systems and biological food chains.
The findings point to declining ecosystem health, with pollinators and soil organisms—critical to agriculture—among the worst affected.
In Murang’a County, researchers detected 11 different pesticide residues in bee products, while studies in Kisumu found contamination in all samples taken from five rivers, with concentrations harmful to aquatic life.
The report further notes that nearly half of Kenya’s 141 registered pesticide active ingredients—67 in total—are classified as HHPs, with 67% toxic to soil life, 46% to aquatic organisms, and 41% harmful to birds.
“We are poisoning the natural systems that our food depends on,” said Elizabeth Atieno, Food Campaigner at Greenpeace Africa.
“The bees, the soil, and the rivers are the foundation of every farm in Kenya. When we lose them, we lose farming itself. What this report shows is that the damage is already happening, and almost no one is measuring it.”
She added that while Kenya’s partial ban on 77 HHPs is a step forward, enforcement gaps remain.
“A ban without monitoring tells us nothing about whether we are actually recovering,” she said.
The report highlights persistent loopholes, noting that chlorpyrifos remains permitted for termite control and imidacloprid is still allowed in greenhouse use.
It warns that without strict enforcement, clear phase-out timelines, and farmer support systems, the ban risks being largely symbolic.
According to the report’s author, Silke Bollmohr, the evidence points to widespread environmental dispersion of pesticides beyond agricultural zones.
“The data is unambiguous. These pesticides are not staying on farms. They are spreading into waterways, accumulating in bee products, and contaminating household dust that children breathe every day,” she said.
“What makes this even more alarming is that most countries have no systematic monitoring in place, so the true scale of contamination remains largely invisible. We are making decisions about Africa’s food future in the dark.”
The report also underscores the socio-economic pressure on smallholder farmers, many of whom rely on chemical inputs due to limited access to alternatives.
Jeff Kahuho, Senior Program Officer at PELUM Kenya, said farmers are caught in a difficult cycle.
“Smallholder farmers are caught in a trap,” he said.
“They are sold the idea that chemicals are the only way to protect their crops, yet the same chemicals are degrading the very soil and water that farming depends on. Agroecology offers a genuine alternative. What farmers need now is investment, training, and policy support.”
Additional findings show that pesticide contamination in Kisumu rivers included diazinon, imidacloprid, acetamiprid and atrazine, while in Narok, about 70% of water samples were contaminated with carbendazim, making some sources unsafe for infants.
Despite these findings, Kenya and most African countries lack systematic national monitoring programmes for pesticide residues in soil, water and food, leaving the full scale of ecological and human exposure largely undocumented.
Isaac Kariuki, an agroecology farmer, said his transition away from chemical pesticides has restored ecological balance on his farm.
“I have moved away from these toxic chemicals and started working with nature—building healthy soils, protecting water, and bringing back pollinators,” he said.
“It is possible to grow food without poisoning our land. But many farmers are still trapped, and the damage is spreading into our rivers and ecosystems.”
The report calls for a continent-wide phase-out of HHPs, a ban on the export of pesticides prohibited in the EU to Africa, expanded investment in agroecological farming, and the establishment of regional pesticide monitoring systems.
