NAIROBI, KENYA: Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) personnel at the Port of Mombasa have intercepted two containers suspected to be containing prohibited goods that were destined for export to South Korea disguised as tea.
KRA Assistant Commissioner in charge of Southern Region, Mr Nicholas Kinoti said that an earlier custom entry declaration showed that the two containers contained 880 bags of Kenyan tea. The falsified containers were discovered on Tuesday evening according to officials who told The Standard that inspection later showed they actually contained goods including old batteries.
'' Scanned images showed different views leading to further scrutiny of the containers revealed contraband goods that were listed banned for export,'' he said.
And when the two 20 foot containers Nos PCIU 16166916 & PCIU 1386808 were stripped open , they revealed used car batteries.
Kinoti who was flanked by KRA Chief Operations Manager, Mombasa Port, Mr Joseph Kaguru said that the exporter was listed as one Kakuzi Limited of Nairobi and the clearing agent indicated as Kapwell Enterprises Limited also of Nairobi.
'' We have made progress in investigations and by Friday, we shall be presenting to court some suspects to face charges,'' Kinoti said.
The scanned images of the two containers contradicted the declaration on the entry and indicated the probability that the container could be loaded with prohibited goods.
Kenya made a special request for Restriction Order from the East African Community (EAC) Council of Ministers primarily targeting scrap batteries.
Kinoti said that the principal objective of restricting this particular commodity was to create a feed stock of crude batteries that can be recycled for purposes of extracting lead for the local manufacture of automotive batteries.
