Africa-Press – Kenya. The Kenya Bureau of Standards boss on Tuesday came under fire as angry MPs demand names of the big guns behind the disappearance of condemned sugar from a Thika godown.
The lawmakers sitting at the National Assembly’s Trade Committee accused Kebs acting managing director Esther Ngari of covering up known cartel behind the sugar disappearance. Committee chairman James Gakuya said the team will go all out to unravel how the condemned sugar found its way into the market.
“We need to know the nitty-gritty of the process. We cannot stop from seeking clarification on how it started and how it ended in the market to unsuspecting Kenyans,” Gakuya said.
“Maybe there were interests on the condemn sugar.” The brown sugar condemned in 2018 disappeared from Vinepack godown in Thika, Kiambu county, while awaiting conversion to ethanol.
The committee accused Kebs of being evasive and economical with the truth. Machakos MP Joyce Kamene demanded that the committee summon the multi-agency team that handled the matter of the contraband sugar.
“If we want to get clear answers, we need to have the multi-agency here. We need an explanation on how the sugar disappeared. It seems there are cartels which you people [Kebs] don’t want to mention,” Kamene said.
Ngari was before the Gakuya-led team to explain how the condemned brown sugar found its way to the market and sold to Kenyans as normal sugar. Vihiga Woman Representative Beatrice Adagala also accused Kebs of cover-up, saying the agency is letting Kenyans down.
“Seems to be something being hidden somewhere. There is a game being played here, cartels wanted the people to die. You are the people letting Kenyans down, cartels should tell us why they wanted to kill Kenyans,” Adagala said.
Gakuya said the committee will write to the multi-agency team, including Kenya Revenue Authority, to explain the mysterious disappearance of the contraband sugar.
Appearing before the committee two weeks ago, Ngari turned heat on the Kenya Revenue Authority for the disappearance of the illicit sugar that found its way into the market.
She told MPs the 20,000 bags of 50kg suspicious sugar were under custody of KRA at the time they disappeared. “The consignment in the godown was sealed off again by the enforcement arm of KRA-ISO (Intelligence and Strategic Operations),” Ngari said.
“The consignment was under the custody of ISO and Vinepack.”
Ngari also told the committee chaired by the Embakasi North MP that Kebs has traced and seized more than 52 tonnes of substandard sugar that found its way into the market. She told MPs that the unsafe sugar was seized from more than 300 outlets spread across the country.
“After learning of the alleged loss of sugar with suspicion that it had been released into the market to unsuspecting consumers, Kebs immediately sanctioned a countrywide market surveillance activity which is still ongoing to remove all suspicious sugar,” Ngari said.
The impounded goods, she noted, are currently undergoing tests awaiting destruction. “This is what we have considered as potentially unsafe, so it has been seized, isolated and the decision to destroy will be made once testing is complete,” Ngari said.
“The suspicious sugars have been seized across the country and samples submitted to Kebs testing laboratories where testing is ongoing, and results will be shared with this honourable committee once the testing exercise is completed.”
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