Police impound 620,000kgs sugar at Athi River flower firm

Police on Monday seized thousands of bags of imported sugar stored in a warehouse at a flower firm in Machakos.

The team led by Machakos County Commissioner Matilda Sakwa, impounded  12,400 bags of sugar packed in 50kg sacks at Prima Rosa Flower company in Athi River.

Ms Sakwa said it was the biggest single consignment of suspected illegal sugar to be impounded in the country since the war on contraband sugar started.

Machakos County Director of Criminal Investigations Jonah Kirui, Machakos police boss Samuel Mukindia and Ms Sakwa arrived at the firm’s premises at midday and inspected the expansive warehouse.

The firm is said to have moved its operations to Nakuru.

Officers from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) and those from the national anti-counterfeit agency were also present during the raid.

The sugar was imported from Brazil in September last year.

Ms Sakwa said investigations will be done to verify if the sugar is fit for human consumption and whether relevant clearances were conducted at the point of entry.

“What caught our attention is the fact that Prima Rosa is a firm known to deal in flower farming in the country and now they are storing this much amount of sugar,” Ms Sakwa said.

The county commissioner identified the importer as Express Kenya Limited.

She directed the police to seal off the warehouse as Kebs, KRA and the anti-counterfeit agency conduct authentication.

Two weeks ago, police seized another 2,000 bags of imported sugar from Mt Kenya Wholesalers in Matuu town, Machakos.