- Some 20,000 bags of sugar of 50kg each were shipped from Zimbabwe to Mombasa on June 30, 2018,
- The Nema DG Mamo B. Mamo said they did not escort the sugar from Mombasa to Thika as this was a customs function.
Image: FILE
National Environment Management Authority (Nema) has absolved itself from the disappearance of more than one million kilogrammes of condemned sugar in April.
Nema said the release of imported goods under customs custody, including condemned cargo, is the sole mandate of the Kenya Revenue Authority according to the provisions of Section 217 (2) of the East Africa Community Customs Management Act, 2004.
“The other government agencies only play advisory roles based on their institutional legal mandates,” Director General Mamo B. Mamo.
In submissions to the National Assembly’s Departmental Committee on Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, Mamo said Nema cannot be held in any way responsible for the release and loss of the sugar.
“Nema did not anyway initiate, facilitate or authorise the release of the sugar. This was wholly initiated and coordinated by KRA as per their institutional and legal mandate,” he said.
Some 20,000 bags of sugar of 50kg each were shipped from Zimbabwe to Mombasa on June 30, 2018, but mysteriously disappeared from the Vine Park Industry warehouse in Thika in April.
Officials fear the condemned sugar could have been repackaged and sold to unsuspecting Kenyans.
Mamo further the committee led by Embakasi North MP James Gakuya Nema was not aware of any requirement to be involved in the witnessing of the receipt of the sugar in Thika.
He said Nema officers based in Mombasa only participated in a multi-agency exercise that witnessed the verification of the sugar at KRA storage in Mombasa and the loading and arming of the trucks with customs seals.
“Nema did not escort the sugar from Mombasa to Thika as this was a customs function,” he stated.
On July 7, a director of Vinepack Limited Peter Mwangi, told the committee that KRA officials sealed the godown ahead of determining whether eight conditions set for transportation and destruction were met.
He said KRA officials later unsealed the godown where the sugar had been stored only to find the stores empty.
On Tuesday, Mamo said the subject sugar had been gazetted for destruction by KRA on July 2, 2021, without Nema being asked to guide on the mode and site for its destruction (Gazette Notice No. 6542).
“A scrutiny of the gazette notice indicates that KRA intended to destroy the sugar by crushing it at the customs warehouse in Kilindini. It is also not clear what the end product of the crushing was to be and the fate of the same,” he said.
He added that the matter later transformed from the destruction of the sugar to the sale of the same raw material for ethanol production, an undertaking which no longer required Nema’s involvement.
“Nema did not advise KRA to have the sugar distilled into ethanol as a mode of destruction,” he added.
He further noted that Nema does not participate in the disposal of condemned goods that are offered for auctioning or sale via public or private treaties.