Mt Kenya Wholesalers owner faces charges over illegal sugar

What you need to know:

  • Mr Simon Mwangi is the owner of Mt Kenya Wholesalers which distribute goods in Central and lower Eastern regions.
  • Mr Mwangi was arrested on Friday evening after police seized illegal sugar in his warehouses.
  • Police found illegal sugar in his Kitui, Matuu, and Mwingi towns warehouses.

Police in Kitui were on Sunday holding a businessman in whose warehouses suspected illegal sugar was seized as investigations on how it was smuggled into the country intensifies.

Kitui Central OCPD Muthuri Mwongera confirmed that Mr Simon Mwangi, the proprietor of Mt Kenya Wholesalers which is the leading goods distributor in Central and lower Eastern regions, was in their custody and will be arraigned in court on Monday.

He said detectives were verifying the authenticity of documents submitted by the businessman to establish the source of the consignment, the people involved in importation and the entire chain of distribution in the country.

“He is most likely going to be arraigned in court on Monday. We hope to have accomplished our investigations by then” Mr Mwongera told the Nation.

The trader was arrested on Friday evening and his warehouses put on a 24-hour police guard after hundreds of bags of sugar suspected to be contaminated were seized in simultaneous raids in Matuu, Mwingi and Kitui towns.

Mr Mwongera said samples of the sugar were taken to the Government Chemist for testing

Officers from the Kenya Bureau of Standards and Kenya Revenue Authority joined the probe team.

“Our preliminary investigations have established that import duty wasn’t paid on the sugar. It is similar to the one impounded in Nairobi which was suspected to contain poisonous elements but we’ll ascertain this after getting results of chemical analysis from Government Chemist,” the OCPD said.