• Two truck drivers and a third person arrested Saturday after coming from illegal Tanzania entry-exit point.
• 13,500 litres of untaxed ethanol worth Sh4.16 million
DCI headquarters has taken over the importation of 13,500 litres of untaxed ethanol seized on Saturday in Loitokitok on the border with Tanzania.
The shipment that came through an illegal entry point is worth Sh4.15 million, police said. The two trucks carried 54 plastic drums each containing 250 litres of ethanol.
Kajiado county police commander Beatrice Gachago told the Star on Monday the officers from headquarters are on their way.
“The Directorate of Criminal Investigations will check the quantity and take samples to the government chemist for verification. This is normal,” Gachago said.
She said the drivers of the two trucks and a third suspect were arrested and would be arraigned when investigations are complete.
The handover to headquarters comes two days after local DCI officers violently stopped journalists from covering the ethanol seizure. They included the Star's Kurgat Marindany.
Kenya Revenue Authority officials called in from the Illasit border control, the official exit-entry point. They said documents of the trucks carrying ethanol indicated they had left the country for Tanzania on Friday, November 15.
I don't understand why Loitokitok DCI officers were wild at journalists. That's not how we operate with media. That matter leaked immediately ...there was nothing they could do to conceal the seizure.Beatrice Gachago, Kajiando county police commander
“Officially, as per our records, these trucks are supposed to be in Tanzania and have not been cleared back to the country,” an official at Loitokitok police station said.
On Saturday, journalists' cameras and phones were seized by local DCI officers from Loitokitok, soon after one truck was impounded and taken to Loitokitok police station.
The journalists had been tipped by a senior police officer about the seizure of the Kenyan trucks.
But when reporters arrived at the police station, they were bundled out of their cars. Their equipment was confiscated and DCI officers said they did not have their permission to take photos of a truck suspected to have carried ethanol.
“I don't understand why the Loitokitok DCI officers were wild at the journalists. That is not how we operate with the media. That matter leaked immediately the trucks were seized and there was nothing they [the DCI officers] could have done to conceal the seizure,” Gachago told the Star.
She went on, “As soon as I received the information, we forwarded it to DCI headquarters. We even sent the Kajiado South deputy county commissioner, Lawrence Kinyua, to be on the lookout by visiting the police station.”
After all the senior police commanders arrived at the station, the DCI officers who had kept journalists at bay, withdrew. One was heard saying there was no problem with journalists as long as they identified themselves.
(Edited by V. Graham)