Three businessmen were charged on Monday with repackaging and selling substandard sugar in
Eastleigh, Nairobi.
Dahir Ahmed, Mohammed Dahir and Ahmed Sheikh faced
Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Martha Mutuku.
The court heard that on June 4 at Diamond Wholesalers stores in Eastleigh, they and their accomplices offered 922 50-kg bags of substandard white sugar for sale.
The commodity's value was placed at Sh3,070,260.
The three were also accused of selling
204 50-kg bags of substandard brown sugar, valued at Sh679,000, and using the KEBS standardisation mark without a permit.
The prosecution said they also offered the product for sale under
poor hygenic conditions.
The last count stated that the three and others not before court were also found selling
648 20-litre jerricans of premium safari cooking oil valued at Sh1,555,2000.
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The magistrate granted each of the accused Sh 2 million bond or or Sh300,000 cash bail pending the hearing of the case on September 3.
A police officer earlier told the court that the sugar was unfit for human consumption and that it was being put in the packages of other companies.
He opposed the release of the suspects saying it would jeopardise investigations and asked for more time for investigations.
"The team needs more time to authenticate import documents at the Port of Mombasa and visit the sugar companies whose packaging bags were being used by the suspects," he said.
"The suspects should not be released as they are likely to
facilitate the removal of the raw sugar from
the stores to which they were supplied."
The offer added that the matter is of public interest as it
touches on the public's health
"The suspects are flight risks and their identities have not yet been confirmed," he told the court.
Investigations are being carried out by teams from the Anti-Counterfeit Agency, Kenya Revenue Authority, Kenya Ports Authority, Kenya Bureau of Standard, as well as the government chemist and the ODPP.