The government has announced the commencement of the registration of all traders who package sugar with the view to make it easier for the relevant authorities to trace and monitor sugar quality at retail shelves.
In a notice to Kenyans, the Agriculture Food Authority (AFA) directed all sugar packers to provide their details by filling in the application form for registration to engage in this form of trade. AFA also listed the registration requirements for eligible applicants.
Traders dealing in sugar packaging were directed to provide several details including the trademark registration certificates, samples of the sugar brand and certificate of incorporation or business name.
Other requirements listed by the Food Authority included; a valid tax compliance certificate, an Identity Card or passport of the packager or the passport of the directors owning the packaging company and the weight of the sugar to be repackaged.
In its directive, AFA also called on all traders with the requisite documents to contact the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) for further approval of the product before packaging.
The decision to register all sugar packers comes amidst concern by sugar manufacturing companies that some of the sugar retailers repackage and rebrand contraband sugar using their brand names.
In May this year, detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) were forced to intervene and arrest a suspect linked to the trade of counterfeit sugar. The DCI officers during an early morning crackdown, managed to arrest the suspect in Makindu, Makueni County.
According to the detectives, the suspect was intercepted by the area police who conducted an impromptu search in the lorry only for them to find out that the lorry was ferrying about 2,500 kilograms of sugar.
In an attempt to defend himself, the driver produced two receipts claiming that the sacks of sugar were approved by the government for transportation. However, scrutiny by the officers revealed foul play.
The officers noted that a close look at the sugar exposed loopholes in the packaging. Authorities arrived at the conclusion that the sugar being transported by the driver was counterfeit. The suspect was ferrying counterfeit repackaged in the colours of a popular sugar brand in the country.
The police officers in their report revealed that the expiry dates of the sugar packages were handwritten further exposing the repackaged commodity as fake. The officers went ahead to impound the sugar before ferrying it to the police station.
It is not the first time such incidents have been reported in the country. In recent years, cases of Kenyans consuming poisonous sugar have been reported severally.
