Nairobi: Sugar is being illegally imported through the Kisumu pier, Lugari MP Ayub Savula said. Speaking in a phone interview, he said the sugar is repackaged in Uganda before it is sent to Kenya.
Savula, a member of the parliamentary Select Committee on Agriculture said foreign countries are supplying cheap sugar through Uganda, which is a member of Comesa.
“There is a cartel doing the work of supplying such sugar into the country while enjoying support from some leaders in authority,” Savula said.
On Saturday, the Star spotted thousands of sacks of sugar being offloaded from a ship that had just landed from Uganda.
The sacks bore the name of Kakira Sugar Company in Uganda and had authoritisation from the Uganda Bureau of Standards.
When contacted, Kenya Revenue Authority Western boss John Orioro said the imports were legal.
He said there is no cause for alarm over sugar imports from Uganda.
However, Savula said sugar imports from Uganda are “merely repackaged into sacks bearing the names of Ugandan companies while in real sense they do not originate from there”.
The Star could not immediately establish the claims.
The Agriculture committee wants the government to cancel trading licences for three companies it accuses of repackaging illegal sugar imports into locally branded bags for sale in the Kenyan market.The committee said Kenafric Industries, Czarnikov EA and Rising Star Commodities trade in illegal sugar imports.
