Sh382m ivory was cleared without checking: KPA official

What you need to know:

  • Benjamin Mwandawiro told a Mombasa court that records indicate that mandatory procedure for container scanning at the port was not adhered to by the respective forwarder.
  • He was testifying in a case in which Fredrick Sababu and James Ngala are charged with conspiracy to bring into a customs area prohibited goods (elephant tusks) weighing 3827.5 kilos stuffed into a twenty-foot container for exportation to Thailand.

A container with 638 ivory pieces worth Sh382.7 million was not checked before it was cleared for export, a Kenya Ports Authority employee staff has revealed.

Benjamin Mwandawiro told a Mombasa court that records indicate that mandatory procedure for container scanning at the port was not adhered to by the respective forwarder.

“The standard procedures as required by Kenya Revenue Authority for clearing goods for export is that export containers must be scanned once they have entered the port and prior to issuance of final release for shipment,” he told Chief Magistrate Evans Makori.

He was testifying in a case in which Fredrick Sababu and James Ngala are charged with conspiracy to bring into a customs area prohibited goods (elephant tusks) weighing 3827.5 kilos stuffed into a twenty-foot container for exportation to Thailand.

Denied offence

They have denied committing the offence at the Mombasa port in Changamwe on January 13, 2013.

The witness said the scanning process is normally done at the new service area by a mobile scanner and that no container should be cleared for export before the process is followed.

“In this particular case, neither the container has a final released for shipment issued nor does it have an endorsed position slip, based on this facts, it is strongly believed that immediately after the container entry, the truck proceeded straight to the yard where the container was unprocedurally offloaded,” he said in a report he produced in court.

Mr Mwandawiro who works at the port as Export Documentation officer said as a procedure, after the final release for shipment has been issued by KRA through the Kwatos system, the forwarder would proceed to the documentation office and present the position slip where final release for shipment is confirmed.

Email application

The court heard that the suspects made a shipping application through email, where they stated that the consignment was for balance decoration stones weighing 15,000 kilogrammes, destined to Line Chapu Thailand.

Mr Mwandawiro said further investigations revealed that the documents used to clear the container were fake.

Kenya Wildlife Service Principal Investigating officer Joseph Sarara said the documents had similar description with that of another container that had been intercepted in Hong Kong.

“The shipping order for this container had similar details as the container which had earlier been seized in Hong Kong with elephant tusks on January 1,2013.”