Strange cargo found in container at port

A container packed with an unusual and bizarre cargo was opened at the port of Mombasa Thursday.

The cargo was packed in 10 huge cartons and comprised plastic human skeletons, skulls, limbs, palms, huge black spiders, tombstones, corpses, mummies and bats.

A senior Kenya Revenue Authority official said the grotesque items had been imported from China by “a very famous” Kenyan politician. She said the cargo had not been declared.

The items are normally associated with the American tradition of Halloween, or as props for horror movies, stage plays and amusement arcades.

However, some superstitious people at the port claimed the items are used in the occult and by cults with temples in Mombasa, Nairobi and Kisumu.

Kenya Revenue Authority southern region senior assistant commissioner Fatma Yusuf said investigations had been launched into the cargo and its importer would be named in due course.

Some of the grotesque items portray human suffering, with one of them showing a man groaning in pain as he is being attacked by numerous rats.

The plastic limbs, some dismembered at the knee or elbow, have red paint to represent oozing blood and raw flesh.

There are also plastic boards inscribed in red letters, one of them inscribed “Turn back” and the other “Enter if you dare”.

The cargo is at Interpel container freight station next to the Changamwe roundabout. It arrived on September 3, according to Ms Yusuf.

Household goods

“The 40-foot container arrived from China as normal household goods and mixed hardware. But on 100 per cent verification, we discovered unconventional goods that include fake human parts like hands, legs, skeletons, among others,” said Ms Yusuf.

She said declared goods in the same container included curtains, fridges, washing machines, ovens, gas stoves, microwaves, tiles, locks and shower cubicles.

Ms Yusuf said the grotesque images and items were the first such import to be seen in the country.