Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri Explains How Mercury Ended Up in Contraband Sugar

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri has explained how illegal sugar imported into the country might have been contaminated with poisonous compounds such as mercury and copper.

Speaking on Monday when he appeared before Parliament Committees probing the contraband sugar scandal, Kiunjuri said the sweetener may have been contaminated in the high seas.

He said some importers ferried the commodity from abroad in open and dirty vessels that had been used to carry fertilizer, coal and other poisonous materials.

Kiunjuri said the National Treasury was to blame for the dumping of over one billion kilos of contraband sugar into the Kenyan market. He said the National Treasury issued a gazette notice dated May 2017, which opened the window for anyone to import sugar duty-free.

The said notice reportedly failed to specify details of the quality and quantity of the sugar to be imported, a loophole that unscrupulous traders could have exploited to bring bad sugar into the country.

More than 370 importers took advantage of the window to flood the market with sugar, despite the country having only 12 licensed millers. Some 350,000 metric tonnes is among raw sugar feared to contain mercury, copper and lead that found its way into the country.