Is billionaire Rai a victim or villain in ongoing probe?

Jaswant Rai (second right) takes President Uhuru Kenyatta round the Rai Paper in Webuye, Bungoma County in 2016. [File, Standard]

Billionaire Jaswant Rai was thrust back into the news this week as police raids in the hunt for questionable sugar continued across the country.

The family, which has four factories in the Western sugar belt, drew the interest of investigating agencies over the imports but the billionaire owner says his is not contraband as they had not evaded duty nor imported it illegally.

The miller, with expansive investment in the sugar sector at a time when the other players are struggling, has been aggressively expanding its operations to Busia County with the construction of the Olepito Sugar Company.

It is also making inroads in Bungoma, having started construction of another factory in Naitiri market.

West Kenya Sugar is also operating the Sukari Industries mill in Ndhiwa, South Nyanza.

Rai, who used the duty free import window and shipped in 180,000 metric tonnes of sugar, part of which it stored in its Pan Paper warehouse in Webuye, maintains that his firm has done nothing wrong.

Rai, who has left his key sugar business that produces the Kabras brand to his son Tejveer to run, says he is worried about the impact of the recent police action on his business.

In an interview with Sunday Standard, he said his firm invested in equipment to refine the bulk sugar it imported and make it safe for human consumption.

He says he has all relevant import documents and certification required. 

The firm says its sugar consignment was inspected by Intertek International, which is appointed by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) to ensure that it is in conformity with the standards before it was shipped in.

It received its approval to import sugar on July 25, 2017 from the sugar directorate under the agriculture and food authority.

Import documents show that the firm imported its sugar from Brazil.

“We were also affected by the sugarcane shortage and this is why we opted to apply for a licence to import brown sugar from Brazil,” said Rai, insisting that his firm followed due process.

He says all the bulk brown sugar it imported was placed in quality-controlled, white woven bags which have an inner water-resistant liner.

“The bags are marked ‘NOT FOR SALE' as that sugar requires further processing to our exacting standards before it is released to the consumer market,” Tejveer said in a statement.

“The final product is then tested in our laboratories to ensure that it meets the Kebs table sugar quality standards,” the firm said.

Rai said that to ensure this condition was met, the sugar was transported 900 kilometres by road from Mombasa to Kakamega for processing, incurring an additional Sh400 per 50kg bag.

The firm says it transported the sugar to their factory in batches due to logistical challenges of truck availability and lack of storage space at their factory.

It said that was why some of it was stored at their go-downs in Pan Paper, which is close to their factory in Kakamega County, from where they would be taken to their West Kenya Sugar factory for final processing.

The firm says the sugar confiscated at Eastleigh was tested and it failed the test.