Details have emerged of a ship carrying 40,000 tonnes of sugar that is yet to be offloaded 10 months after it docked at the Port of Mombasa.
According to the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) the ship docked in August 2017.
KPA General Manager and harbour master Captain William Ruto stated that the ship was denied approval to offload the cargo.
[caption caption="Trucks within the port of Mombasa waiting to be loaded with imported sugar"][/caption]
This comes at a time the government has heightened the fight against the influx of substandard goods into the Kenyan market.
The emergence of the details follows reports that a ship bringing 10,000 tonnes of Morocco fertiliser to Mombasa fled to the high seas in a bid to avoid the cargo being tested before it was offloaded.
"What is loaded in that ship could be a dangerous consignment and that is why they do not want to go through the inspection,” the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) director George Kinoti stated.
He added that the company seeking to import the fertilizer is the same entity that was linked to a multi-million fertilizer saga that had seen several KEBS officials arrested two weeks ago.
Kinoti revealed: “This is the same company whose directors we have taken to court over the importation of fake fertilizer. We are pursuing the Moroccan directors.”
The government mentioned that it would pursue the vessel using Interpol to make sure it does not offload the cargo anywhere.
Interior CS Fred Matiangi warned that the counterfeits purge was also aimed at sealing tax evasion loopholes.
[caption caption="A container being offloaded from a ship at Mombasa port"][/caption]