It all started as the mere lack of potato chips at a global fast food chain that couldn’t keep up with demand during the festive season. It then became apparent that big fast-food players don’t serve Kenyan-grown potato chips because of perceived poor quality. The social media outrage decrying missed business opportunities while disputing poor quality forced the government, fast food players and farmers into action. We asked agricultural development researcher Timothy Njagi Njeru and economist X.N. Iraki to explain the context for the controversy.
