Contradictory statements by Cabinet secretaries about tests on sugar seized from traders has exposed the confusion in Government, and turned the spotlight on top officials. What exactly do they know about the controversial imports?

Industrialisation CS Adan Mohammed, in whose docket falls the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs), yesterday said no traces of mercury had been found on the sugar, contradicting an earlier statement by Interior CS Fred Matiang’i.

In the National Assembly, Majority Leader Aden Duale named 100 companies he claimed were behind the importation of brown sugar worth Sh39.2 billion alleged to contain toxins, as he also turned the heat on Treasury CS Henry Rotich and Phillip Kameru, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) boss.

By virtue of their positions in Government, and their contacts in the intelligence community, the CSs, security chiefs and top parastatal bosses under whose dockets sugar imports fall, should know what is ailing the country.