By  WILLIS OKETCH

Kenya Sugar Board directors have seized 46,000 bags of imported duty free sugar worth Sh184 million after they raided a godown at Changamwe in Mombasa.

Reports show this is the largest seizure of illegal sugar imports anywhere in Kenya since the start of official records.

Documents found with workers at the warehouse showed the commodity was imported by a Nairobi-based firm called Mt Kenya Skyline.

The Friday’s seizure was described by the KSB directors as a breakthrough in the fight against dumping of cheap duty-free sugar into the local market, which they complained was destabilising the local sugar prices.

It has emerged that seizure was the first of its kind after many years in the fight against the importation of illegal sugar into the local market. Last week, the directors impounded a huge amount of the sugar in a Super Market in Nakuru.

The directors, led by the authority’s chairman Saul Busolo, also impounded 1,800 bags of condemned sugar at African Logistic Bollore godown at Chagamwe following a tip off from the public.

During the raid where 46,000 bags of sugar were seized, two workers at the godown suspected to have been involved in the repackaging of the commodity into new sacks were arrested. Criminal Investigation officers who accompanied the board of directors to the place arrested the two suspects and took them Changamwe police station.

The Board’s Managing Director Rose Mkok said the two suspects were arrested for engaging in illegal repackaging of imported sugar whose origin was not known.

The directors who have launched investigation into the illegal importation of the commodity said they want to stop the importation of cheap sugar into the market to protect the local sugar industry.

Addressing the Press in Changamwe after the raid, a director, Engineer Mohamed Mukhwana claimed: “We are surprised that this is an importer we allowed to bring sugar into the country but he has imported more than what he was allowed.”

  Domestic consumption

He said the local sugar industries had manufactured enough sugar, which can meet the domestic consumption but now they cannot sell the commodity because of cheap sugar, which has flooded the market.  Others in the raid included Nicholas Oricho, Billy Wanjala and Ewiing Mwombe. They vowed to continue with the exercise to rid the country of illegal cheap sugar.

They complained that sugarcane farmers in the Western part of Kenya were not being paid for the sugarcane they had delivered because the sugar they had was not being sold.

“We have tonnes of ready sugar in the godowns of the sugar factories but they are not being sold because of the cheap imported sugar in the country,” said Oricho.

Oricho, who spoke where the condemned bags of sugar were impounded, regretted that the commodity was now being sold in various supper markets and shops and their suitability was not known.

He said the importation of the sugar was destabilising the price of local manufactured sugar and that was why they declared war against the illegal importation of the sugar.

He said the board of directors would soon take the war against the importation of illegal sugar to Garissa, Mandera and other parts of the country as a measure to protect the local sugar industries.