A Ugandan businessman has dragged the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to court for allowing the importation of millions of substandard condoms currently in circulation.
The Government of Uganda is also co-accused.
Mr. Joseph Sseremba served the Ugandan Attorney General and UNFPA with a notice of intention to sue and demanded that condoms manufactured by five Asian companies be recalled within 45 days from the date he filed the notice (August 17).
Sseremba named Indus Medicare from India and Karex Industries from Malaysia to have supplied the condoms. Other companies are Guilin Latex Factory, Qingdao Double Butterfly Group and Tianjin Human care Latex Corporation; all from China.
In the notice, Sseremba said many of the condoms in circulation are substandard and do not meet the acceptable quality level set by the Uganda National Bureau of Standards.
He said the condoms have a bad odour, do not have a manufacturer’s name for traceability, while others are improperly labelled and packaged.
“The consumer packages do not contain information in at least one of the official languages of the country of destination, if possible supplemented by pictorial representations of the major steps involved in proper condom use,” the notice reads.
Sseremba alleges that the inner boxes of the substandard condoms containing 114 pieces were not constructed of board plasticised on their in-surface and are not of sufficient strength and rigidity to retain their shape through every stage of distribution as required.
Leave a Reply