Thika Senior Resident Magistrate Fredrick Koome on Thursday, May 18, exposed tricks used by businessmen to sneak condemned milk into the market.
Speaking after overseeing the destruction of toxic milk in Thika, the magistrate indicated that unscrupulous businessmen were taking advantage of licenced vendors to sneak unfit milk into the market.
Addressing the media, Koome disclosed that the traders were posing as legitimately licenced vendors to dupe unsuspecting members of the public to buy condemned milk.
He thus advised Kenyans to purchase milk from approved vendors and expose unscrupulous dealers.
"I would wish to urge the members of the public to be extremely cautious when buying milk. At least buy your milk from licensed milk vendors.
"We know that there are people who are taking advantage of those licensed vendors," Koome stated.
He added that the traders running the outlawed venture were apprehended and presented before Thika Law Courts, where they pleaded guilty to charges levelled against them.
Koome revealed that the traders were nabbed in an operation launched by law enforcement officers posted in the area targeting illicit liquor. 60 litres of toxic milk was recovered and destroyed following court orders.
He added that over 160 litres of illicit liquor were also seized during the sting operation conducted by the security officers.
"For the milk, we have actually destroyed 60 litres and for different alcoholic drinks which do not comply with the necessary regulatory requirements, we have poured in excess of 160 litres," he insisted.
While directing the law enforcement officers to intensify the operations, he argued that the country was losing a fortune to such unlicensed dealers. Further, he maintained that condemned products were exposing Kenyans to the danger of contamination.
On Tuesday, May 16, the Directorate of Criminal Investigation raided a Nairobi estate and retrieved milk powder worth Ksh75 million.
DCI indicated that the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) had flagged the seized milk powder as unfit for human consumption.
How the trader managed to sneak the product from the Port of Mombasa to Nairobi before the consignment was nabbed remained a mystery.
"How the milk that had been condemned and was due for destruction found its way to a godown in Umoja III’s Mowlem area is the current mystery that the sleuths are trying to unravel," DCI detailed.
Hours after the unfit milk powder was seized, President Uhuru Kenyatta suspended 27 government officials after condemned sugar sneaked into the market.
The sugar had been nabbed in 2018 and declared unfit for human consumption.
