Crackdown on contraband sends rogue merchants into panic mode

Call it a case of sugar blues. Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i and his Industrialisation colleague Adan Mohamed have not been speaking the same language.

The former says sugar contaminated with mercury and copper has flooded the market, courtesy of racketeers.

Mohamed counters that there is nothing of the sort, that Matiang’i is raising a public alarm needlessly.

The Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs), which is under Mohamed’s docket, has backed their boss.

At first the bureau said it had detected nothing toxic but, on second thought, owned up that the samples they tested contained dangerous levels of copper and lead.

Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) George Kinoti waded into the fight with a stern rebuke for CS Mohamed: “Get your facts right.”

KEBS

The spat is symptomatic of a growing split in the Jubilee government as the anti-corruption war heats up.

What is emerging is that Kebs is now in the crosshairs in what is a wider onslaught not just against contraband sugar, but cartels that run an elaborate web of trade in illicit goods in the country.

Kebs has a poor record when it comes to restricting counterfeit products from entering our borders.

It is not clear where Matiang’i got his mercury angle from; he may have relied on another inspection agency – the Government Chemist – which has since moved from the ministry of Health to ministry of Interior.

On Friday, the matter took a dramatic turn when Kebs’ Managing Director Charles Ongwae and his top officers were arrested on a stiff charge sheet by the DCI.

DUALE'S OUTBURST

In Parliament on Tuesday, an agitated Majority Leader Aden Duale had lambasted Matiang’i for what he suggested was a “selective” crackdown, which has netted traders in Eastleigh and other locations across the country, but left out the big importers.

He also attacked Treasury CS Henry Rotich, whom he accused of licensing sugar importers irregularly.

Duale’s sensational outburst was extremely interesting.

I overheard two MPs (one Jubilee, the other ODM) say that Duale seemed not to be speaking as Majority Leader – meaning not on behalf of government – but for “other” interests.

The following day, the Garissa politician produced a list of dealers he insinuated were the source of the problem.

They included West Kenya Sugar Company, a large-scale licensed importer and processor whose owner, Jaswant Rai, is pointing fingers at more shadowy importers.

LICENSING

Duale, it seems, had held back on one crucial matter.

There are those sugar importers who obtained their licences procedurally and are doing business legally.

The trouble lies with the crooks bringing in contaminated sugar that endangers people’s health.

Government Spokesman Eric Kiraithe was, for all practical purposes, alluding to Duale when he dismissed as “diversionary and useless” utterances made in Parliament that amounted to politicising the sugar crackdown.

SUGAR IMPORT

When there are shortages, sugar millers get waivers to import raw sugar, which they are meant to refine before packaging it for sale.

Unfortunately, there are the rogue merchants who take advantage of this loophole.

The DCI has been uncovering stocks of unrefined, not-for-sale sugar being repackaged for sale under labels of popular supermarket brands.

Even when this sugar has no mercury or other contaminants, the activity is unlawful.

Licensed imports are cleared at authorised points of entry like the port of Mombasa, but corrupt officials frequently let in unregulated merchandise as well.

ORGANISED CRIME

More of this illicit variety comes in through places such as Somalia’s Kismayu port, then finds its way into Kenya through border unguarded routes.

Kebs says legally imported sugar is tested at the point of origin, before it is allowed in.

But smuggled consignments are not subjected to any standards verification to establish if their sugar is not contaminated, nor is duty paid.

Enter Jennifer Shamalla, a Nominated MP. She differentiates between legal imports that are inspected and verified, and the contraband stuff that is not tested by any official laboratory.

“Adan Mohamed is speaking of the former, while Matiang’i is speaking of the latter. That’s the difference,” she explains.

Alas, when speaking in Parliament, she linked the contraband to organised crime and terrorist activity, pointing out that from 2014, Al-Shabaab was reported to have entered the sugar smuggling trade.

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