Trade and Industry Cabinet Secretary Adan Mohammed was on Thursday forced to act fast and dismiss a letter circulating online which alleged he had been informed of the sugar contaminated with mercury.
Through a tweet sent shortly after the letter began circulating, the CS dismissed the contents terming it as fake news.
The letter was purported to have been sent by Kenya Bureau of Standards Managing Director Charles Ongwae stating that the national standards body had conducted tests on the sugar and results came out positive for the presence of mercury.
Speaking to Members of Parliament moments before, Ongwae stated that a sample of sugar they tested had no heavy metals.
[caption caption="Trade and Industry Cabinet Secretary Adan Mohammed during a past event"]
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He told the National Assembly’s Committee on Trade that he was not aware where Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i got the results showing the alleged dirty sugar had mercury.
"We carried out the tests following public outcry that sugar consumed in the country have mercury and from the samples, we tested there was no such thing," Ongwae maintained.
Ongwae stated that copper was found in samples taken from contraband sugar impounded in Kitui, Kisii, Isinya and Ol Kalou.
Findings from the samples showed the sugar had 20.7 milligrams of copper per kilogram whereas the allowed amount of copper is 2 milligrams per kilogram.
Interior CS Fred Matiang'i had announced the bags of contraband sugar that were seized from a warehouse in Nairobi’s Eastleigh area had mercury and copper components.
At a press briefing last week, Matiang’i added that it had about 12 percent moisture and was harmful to consumers.
Here is the fake letter circulating online:
[caption caption="The letter circulating online alleged to be from KEBS MD Ongwae to CS Adan Mohamed"]
