Lobby groups fault government over bad sugar

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Lobby groups have criticized the Kenya Kwanza government after it emerged sugar imported for industrial use was being repurposed for use in homes.

Reacting to a Standard newspaper expose the National Integrity Alliance (NIA) questioned how this was happening under the governments watch.

The expose showed how 27,839 metric tonnes of industrial raw cane sugar from South Africa, valued at approximately Sh1.5 billion were imported by Mombasa Sugar Refinery Limited (MSRL).

The importation was done under a specialised industrial using customs code that attracts a preferential 10 per cent import duty rate which is reserved exclusively for sugar intended for industrial processing, not human consumption.

“What was uncovered is an ongoing scheme in which raw industrial sugar is imported,repackaged as consumer sugar, and sold to unsuspecting Kenyans. This appears to be a trend in which the listed companies import raw industrial sugar at a discounted industrial duty rate and legally designate it for industrial processing only, just later to divert it for human consumption.”

The groups say Kenyans have no way of distinguishing industrial sugar from refined table sugar without laboratory analysis.

“This trend is not merely a matter of commercial law, criminal law, or the integrity of administrative oversight. It constitutes violations of constitutionally guaranteed human rights that include the economic and social rights mainly right to the highest standard of health, the right to be free from hunger and to have adequate food of acceptable quality, the right to consumer protection, and the right to human dignity.”

They allege that the importation was done under the authorities’ radar and involves senior government officials.

The groups question why the sugar sector has remained in a state of structural deficit for years which they say opens the window for exploitation.

They want the Kenya Sugar Board (KSB) governance crisis which began in 2023 sorted out since it should be providing the first and most rigorous line of oversight.

“A court-issued injunction blocked the board's formal appointments as far back as November 2023, leaving it without a proper quorum and therefore unable to make binding decisions on import approvals or exercise its regulatory authority fully.”

They said the government should adopt a Parliamentary Committee report that recommended the amendment of Section 14 of the Standards Act to give timelines which a commodity ought to be inspected and an order on whether the goods are condemned or not given.

They also want the Act to clearly define the mandate of the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) from the point of condemnation to the final destruction process of the condemned commodity.

NIA demands personal liability to Kebs officials who negligently and knowingly approve, certify or fail to act on unsafe products that enter the market

They also want Kebs to be given more powers to hold executives of companies involved in food fraud criminally liable; their mandate should not stop at testing and reporting alone.

The want the regulatory body together with the Kenya Revenue Authority to withdraw and destroy the bad sugar.

They called in the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to probe the directors of Mombasa Sugar Refinery Limited and Kibos Sugar.

They want the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to open a formal corruption inquiry into the allegations of political protection of the implicated sugar companies.

NIA also called for the resignation of Ministry of Trade officials linked to the importation step aside for a probe.