- At least 89,891 bags of rice and 6,093 bags of fertilizer will also be destroyed
- Last year, an analysis on 1,400 bags of illegal sugar found traces of mercury
The government will destroy at least 461,915 bags of sugar with a total volume of 23.1 million kilogrammes, the Trade and Industrialization ministry has said.
It will also raze 89,891 bags of rice-2.2 million kilogrammes and 6,093 bags of fertilizer with a total weight of 304,650 in its continued efforts to curb contraband and counterfeits in the country.
Trade and industrialization Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya says the goods are non-compliant to the country's standards even as some of the importers evaded paying tax. The consumables, Munya said are unfit for human use.
The sugar consignment includes that which was reported to contain mercury, nabbed in a state operation last year.
“The sugar must be destroyed. We have been given a report that it is not good for public consumption, that is why we want it destroyed soonest possible,” Munya said, even as he blamed the judicial system of being slow in issuing orders to destroy the contraband.
“The court process has become another hindrance to enforcement but since there is no injunction stopping the government from destroying, I am telling Kebs and other agencies to go ahead and destroy,” Munya said at a press conference in his Nairobi office.
The decision, he said, has been arrived at by a multi-agency committee which include different ministries, state agencies and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.
The commodities are being held at different warehouses across the country.
The directive comes barely a week after it was reported that at least 5,000 bags of sugar suspected to contain mercury had been stolen from the Bollore godown in Changamwe, Mombasa.
Last year, an analysis on 1,400 bags of illegal sugar found traces of mercury.
Munya in July 2018 had said at least 63 per cent of 1.3 million bags of sugar imported duty free into the country was not fit for human consumption.
According to the CS, 837,244 bags tested failed Kebs standards.The sugar was seized by a multi-agency anti-counterfeit team formed by President Uhuru Kenyatta in May.
Claims of mercury contamination were first made by Interior CS Fred Matiang'i when the government launched a countrywide crackdown on smuggled sugar.