On Thursday, 26 March 2026, the University of Nairobi (UoN) reached a significant milestone in scientific research and education with the official launch of the Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry (GCMS) equipment and a specialised food testing laboratory.
On Thursday, 26 March 2026, the University of Nairobi (UoN) reached a significant milestone in scientific research and education with the official launch of the Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry (GCMS) equipment and a specialised food testing laboratory.
This high-tech facility, housed within the Department of Food Science, Nutrition and Technology of the Faculty of Agriculture, is at the core of the Food Leader Project, under an initiative titled “Empowering Tomorrow's Food Security Leaders: Strengthening Higher Education Capacity for Sustainable Food Systems in Kenya and Mozambique”.
The project is a strategic international partnership between the University of Nairobi, the University of Helsinki (Finland), and the University of Lúrio (Mozambique). Key leadership includes Prof. Catherine Kunyanga (UoN Project Lead) and Dr. Noora Kanerva (University of Helsinki Project Lead). The project is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland through the Higher Education Partnership (HEP) programme, with significant support from private-sector partners such as Food for Education.
The project addresses the critical need for integrating nutrition and food safety sciences. The GCMS machine, a sophisticated tool worth over 20 million Kenya shillings, allows researchers to separate food components and analyse them for pesticide residues and other hazards. This is vital for Kenya, where data suggests a significant percentage of vegetable samples contain toxic levels of pesticide residues.
The event took place at the UoN’s Faculty of Agriculture. While the project began in 2024 and the equipment was installed in October 2025, the official launch marks the start of "full speed" analysis and societal outreach.
The laboratory transforms the university into a leader in scientific research, providing accurate, reliable data for the food industry and government policy. It specifically aims to improve the safety of school feeding programmes, ensuring that meals provided to children are free from harmful toxins.
The project has already trained 50 "champion" students in advanced nutritional assessment and GCMS operation. These future leaders are equipped with practical, work-ready skills to find solutions to food system challenges.
The Permanent Secretary (PS) of the Ministry of Education’s State Department of Science, Research, and Innovation, Professor Shaukat Abdul Razak, who presided over the launch ceremony, emphasised a strategic shift where institutions form clusters for research infrastructure use to maximise national impact. The Permanent Secretary framed the lab’s launch as a critical step toward Kenya reaching first world status by addressing the link between nutrition and the economy.
Representing the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Leonidah Kerubo, emphasised the lab’s importance in transforming University research into tangible societal benefits. The event was a high-energy gathering of partners who felt motivated, empowered, and unified in their mission to revolutionise Kenya's food system. The project’s principal investigators had this to say:
Dr. Noora Kanerva (Project Lead, University of Helsinki): "The goal was really to educate the future leaders to be able to monitor, analyse, interpret, and then implement solutions that address nutrition and food safety combined in the context of local food systems"
Prof. Catherine Kunyanga (The project's Co-Principal Investigator and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture): "This programme has had a very big impact at the University of Nairobi. We'll be leading in terms of agriculture and food testing because this equipment can do a lot of things”.
The “Food Leader” project is a comprehensive multi-sectoral collaboration integrating a diverse array of private sector and community partners that attended the launch including Food for Education, the Cereal Growers Association, Odoo, and local primary schools.