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{
    "id": 619483,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/619483/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 286,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Nooru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2238,
        "legal_name": "Adan Mohamed Nooru",
        "slug": "adan-mohamed-nooru"
    },
    "content": "I have talked about the repackaging and contraband in the sugar sector, which is also found substantially in the amount of illegal sugar that is imported and repackaged in the local brands, bags and sealed identity evading the surveillance of the people who are supposed to check the identities. The other issue is about floating sugar import licences. Several companies, for example, the Rising Star, which have been licensed to import sugar were found to be importing sugar beyond the approved quantities. They have denied the KSB access to their godowns or warehouses to verify whether the quantities in stock are what the KSB has licensed. The other issue is compromising of customer safety. When KRA impounds sugar for one reason or the other, they just auction it without calling in the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) to find out whether it is fit for human consumption. When KRA auctions instead of destroying the impounded sugar, it still ends up flooding the market and reducing the capacity for the local market to absorb that sugar. So, the disadvantage of impounded sugar is that, first, it compromises the consumers’ safety in a sense that it has not been verified by KEBS and secondly, it saturates the market because of the release of sugar by the KRA. The other issue that we have identified in the sugar sector is illegal entry points in terms of porous borders like in North Eastern, Western and Nyanza regions. Sometimes, it happens in areas like in Shimoni, which is not a gazetted entry point. The KRA officials and police officers watch as sugar is being brought in without duty being paid. The Commissioner of Customs came before the Committee. When asked him why they could not verify the containers that bring in sugar which is declared as rice, they claimed that they have no capacity to do so, which is not satisfactory because scanning machines have been purchased for them to do the same job."
}