West Kenya Refutes Claims of Having Contaminated Sugar

West Kenya Sugar Company has refuted the ongoing claims that their sugar is contained traces of copper and mercury.

West Sugar said it was not the proprietor of the sugar seized by authorities in Nairobi’s Eastleigh on June 5.

A statement from the Sugar Millers on Tuesday gave a detailed explanation on why some of their sugar had the ‘NOT FOR SALE’ tag.

According to the statement, the tag was due to the fact that the sugar, which had been imported in bulk by the company required further processing so as to meet the set standards by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) before being released to consumers.

West Sugar states that due to the prolonged drought that hit the country in 2017, cane supply declined and in a move to save the situation, the government granted sugar millers a four-month duty exemption for sugar imports.

“In view of the exceptionally reduced supply of cane available from our preferred local farmers caused by that drought, West Kenya Sugar Company Limited along with several other companies consequently applied for and were granted a license to import bulk brown sugar by the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA),” read the statement.

The statement, which was signed by West Sugar Managing Director Tejveer Rai further disclosed that their brand has always been a target to counterfeits and unscrupulous traders and packers who imports and pass off contraband products using their name.

“We therefore enthusiastically commend the ongoing efforts by the various ongoing government agencies that are working to clamp down on these illegal traders and we support all genuine efforts to ensure that the culprits of such acts are brought to book,” read the statement.

The miller said that they had voluntarily provided access to government inspectors to all their facilities and storage sites adding that samples of their imported sugar are undergoing testing.

“We have no doubts that the result will confirm the integrity of our products and serve to counter the inaccurate, unsupported and alarming reports that are being circulated in the media,” said Rai.

Rai also denied claims that the company may have evaded regulators while importing sugar saying a Pre-Export Verification of Conformity (PVoC) certification was obtained from KEBS.

Further, the company stated that all requisite taxes were paid to the Kenya Revenue Authority.

Reports of contraband sugar gained prominence last week when Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi said that laboratory tests by a government chemist had revealed the presence of elements of copper and mercury in sugar confiscated by the police from a warehouse in Ruiru.

A total of 1,365 bags of sugar had been seized from the Ruiru warehouse alone with police indicating that a number of suspects were being processed for arraignment in court.

Kabras Sugar Press Release