A landlord in Kisii County on Monday, May 22, was shocked to learn of an ongoing illegal sugar syndicate at one of her apartments.
Speaking to the media after a raid by officers drawn from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the landlady was puzzled when it emerged that the tenant had been repackaging sugar from Uganda and Tanzania into locally popular brands.
She stated that on several occasions, she has seen motorcycles loading off bags of sugar at a nearby shop, which the tenant collected.
“He came and asked me for a room which I gave him and he started doing business from there. I do not know exactly where he got the sugar from because all I used to see were motorcycles bringing sugar to a local shop.
“The shopkeeper then called him to get the sugar from the shop. I did not know that he was doing illegal business until authorities came,” she stated.
According to Officer Commanding Police Division(OCPD) Charles Opondo, DCI officers received intelligence from residents of Kisii County who had learnt of the operation.
He stated that the syndicate repackaged sugar from Tanzania and Uganda into sacks labelled Mara, Sony and other local and popular brands.
He added that the DCI officers had arrested a woman who was suspected to have been supplying the sugar noting that the other suspects were still at large.
“We have found bags of sugar from Uganda, Tanzania and some from here in Kenya. The packaging papers are in half kilograms, one kilogram and two kilograms.
‘There is no weighing machine in this place and it looks like they pack a very small amount of sugar,” Opondo noted.
Further, he stated that there was no certainty that the sugar, that was already being sold to the public was safe for consumption adding that the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) had already been notified.
“We do not know if the sugar is safe for consumption because where the sugar was packaged is very unhygienic. The DCI officers have helped us arrest a woman who was the shopkeeper supplying the sugar to them,” he added.
The authorities recovered 14 bags of 10 kilograms of sugar and 300 bags of 25 kilograms of sugar.
This came against the backdrop of a looming sugar crisis in the country as retailers attributed it to the increase in the price of sugar across the country.
A two-kilogram packet of the commodity is going at Ksh470 after jumping from Ksh300 to Ksh415 in days.
Retailers defended the upward adjustment in prices saying they purchase a 50-kg bag of sugar at Ksh4,250 - from the initial price of Ksh3,300.
However, the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) claimed that some traders exaggerated prices while other consumers purchased sugar in bulk in anticipation of a shortage.
