Fresh details over theft and consequent sale of poisionous sugar from a Thika-based warehouse have now emerged linking top Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) honchos as possible masterminds behind the callous heist endangering health and lives of consumers.
Yesterday, while appearing before National Assembly Trade and Industry Committee, in a blow by blow account, Peter Mwangi, the director of Vinepack Limited where the condemned sugar was stored narrated to committee members how KRA officials ignored laid down guidelines on transportation and destruction of the unsafe consignment and could have facilitated the heist.
He said that KRA officials unsealed the go-down where 20,064 bags of sugar had been stored only to find the stores empty.
In a move that incriminates the leadership of the national tax collector, Mwangi alleged that KRA officials know those behind theft.
In what paints a clear plot and possible involvement of powerful individuals to facilitate and or instruct collusion amongst players from multi-sectoral government agencies among them KRA domiciled under the National Treasury Ministry, Kenya Bureau of Standards (Trade, Industry and Investments Ministry), DCI (Interior Ministry), the new developments now implicate senior government officials.
“When I arrived at the go-down, I found three Subarus full of KRA and Directorate of Criminal Investigations officers.” Mwangi observed.
Previously, it was alleged that an unnamed powerful official who sits in president William Ruto’s cabinet and two members of parliament were linked to the heist.
Mwangi singled out KRA’s Intelligence and Strategic Operations, including one Derick Kogo and a Mutuku, of delaying a report that was to get Vinepack a letter for the opening of the go-down.
At least twenty-seven government employees were suspended and charged in court over the release of condemned sugar to the public.
The said sweetener had been declared unfit for human consumption in 2018 and earmarked for conversion into industrial ethanol.
Mwangi said the sugar which was transported from Mombasa to Thika in 40 containers was kept under the seal of the KRA at Thika’s Kings Commodities limited go downs that Vinepack hired.
He added that the sugar in question was under the custody of the KRA because the Customs Act requires that a go down under the KRA seal is treated as a customs bonded area.
At Kings Commodities warehouses where the sugar had been stored had six security guards and round-the-clock CCTV cameras.
“The six guards have since gone missing and the CCTV cameras removed from the warehouse. I have done my own investigations and found out that the sugar consignment was removed on the night of May 29 and 30, I have gone through hell. I want to testify alone in camera.” An apparently emotional Mwangi recounted.
He added that six KRA officials sealed the go-down before determination on whether the eight conditions set for transportation and destruction were met.
According to the businessman, when he visited the go-down on May 1, 2023 the KRA seals and the two padlocks were intact.
Two days later, May 3, 2023, he said, a KRA officer Mwangi identified as Faith Kihara asked him to present himself at the go-down where the taxman was to unseal security seals and open the go-down to check the consignment.
Mwangi said the KRA officials asked if he had the keys but responded that one of the keys was held by Asset and Cargo Limited and the other by Galgamesh Limited.
He claimed the two companies handled the shipment and logistics of moving the condemned sugar from Mombasa to Thika.
He said the KRA seals were intact when the KRA official asked for the keys.
“They broke the padlocks and unsealed the go-down, which was empty. I collapsed. When I regained consciousness, I had handcuffs. I have been to hospital because they broke my nerve.” Mwangi narrated.
The distraught trader told the inquiry team led by Embakasi North MP James Gakuya that he was arrested, taken to Mombasa, beaten, kept for 56 hours without food and charged after 72 hours where he was released on a Sh100,000 bond.