House report lays bare ills bedevilling sugar sector
Casual workers on top of a truck that was transporting alleged contraband sugar impounded by Kenya Sugar Board officers in Changamwe on December 1, 2014. The illegal imports arrive from Sudan, India and Ethiopia. Those behind the deals are prominent personalities in the country, Mumias sugar company which has lately been on the news over mismanagement and a leading confectionery manufacturer. PHOTO | LABAN WALLOGA |
The KSB official, the report states, irregularly issued import licences to local millers and individuals at a time the factories held adequate stocks.
The MPs further recommend that a senior politician adversely mentioned in the diversion of export sugar and illegal imports “takes full responsibility for the fraudulent transactions” and subsequently be barred from holding public office.
The illegal imports arrive from Sudan, India and Ethiopia. Those behind the deals are prominent personalities in the country, Mumias sugar company which has lately been on the news over mismanagement and a leading confectionery manufacturer.
A parliamentary investigation has uncovered serious malpractice by key actors in the sugar sub-sector that has led to paralysis in the industry through fraudulent imports and the diversion of export products into the local market. The preliminary report by the Departmental Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Co-operatives chaired by Adan Mohamed Nooru (Mandera North URP) has recommended the relieving from office and prosecution of a former Kenya Sugar Board (KSB) official for overseeing the near-collapse of the sub-sector.
The draft report is now at the centre of a controversy with some members of the committee refusing to sign it unless it is edited and the names of certain companies and individuals deleted while some are pushing to have it tabled in Parliament as is.
