Mombasa police in record seizure of 15,000 tonnes of sugar

Sugar consignments at Mombasa's Hydery.P.Limited warehouse off the main Moi avenue along the port of Mombasa.

Mombasa police Saturday said they seized about 300,000 bags of Egyptian and Brazilian brown sugar stashed in 50kg bags in warehouses as the war on contraband sugar escalates.

The total weight of the sugar impounded would be 15,000 tonnes and with an estimated value of Sh1.5 billion.

The Sunday Standard team was shown the sugar in white bags at a warehouse, Hydery (P) Limited, whose manager Kalyan Mohamed said was imported legally and certified as fit for consumption by State agencies including the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs).

We established that more than three warehouses owned by Hydery (P) Limited were raided, the sugar placed under armed police guard and workers told to vacate the premises.

Sources said that a multi-agency task force will arrive in Mombasa today to investigate whether the sugar was legally imported and is fit for human consumption.

“We have impounded 300,000 bags of sugar from this go-down. We want to find out whether it is fit for human consumption and if it was brought into the country following the right procedure,” said Mombasa Urban OCPD Eliud Monari.

Unhygienic conditions

There are suspicions that the sugar was stored under unhygienic conditions or had expired. Some of the documents displayed by workers at the warehouse indicated some of the sugar was processed in Egypt in 2012 and was to expire in 2015.

Reports indicate police found workers at the go-downs repackaging the sugar in unmarked white bags. Some of the commodity was still on the ground when journalists were allowed into the premises. Kalyan, however, defended the workers saying they were repackaging the sugar in new bags with permission from Kebs.

He claimed that the sugar was imported from Brazil and Egypt last month although some of the documents on display indicated that it was cleared by Kebs in 2015.

Kalyan disputed police reports that 300,000 bags of sugarwere seized Saturday, saying only 80,000 bags of sugarwere in the warehouse.

“We have 30,000 bags from Brazil and 50,000 bags from Egypt which were certified by Kebs as fit for human consumption,” he said.

Police dismissed Kalyan’s estimate as a gross understatement. “That is his statement. You can assess for yourselves after going around these go-downs,” said the OCPD as police and journalists combed the warehouses off Moi Avenue.

It is unclear who imported this sugar or who owns it but independent sources have linked the commodity to a well-known wealthy man in Nairobi.

By last evening no one had been arrested but Monari said arrests could follow soon if evidence of criminal conduct is unearthed by the multi-agency task force.

“We found them doing repackaging of the sugar in bags labelled Brazilian and Egyptian brown sugar,” he added.

Meanwhile, security officials have been accused of colluding with importers to ship in sugar through small ports on the Indian Ocean without paying duty, for introduction into the Kenyan market.  

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