A preliminary report from the Government Chemist has shown some sugar samples of the consignments under state custody in Nairobi and Bungoma had mercury.
The National Assembly joint committee on Trade and Agriculture chaired by Kanini Kega (Kieni) and Adan Mohamed Noor (Mandera North) is expected to table its report today.
The document dated June 9 from the Interior ministry says the confiscated sugar is unfit for human consumption. The document signed by SG Njoroge for the Government Chemist was availed to the media yesterday by Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi, who is also the Public Accounts Committee chairman.
“Sixty per cent of the samples analysed for the moisture content ... is not suitable for human consumption.”
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Wandayi told the media in his office that the government should speedily destroy all the consignments withheld across the country and put in place stringent measures to curb further importation of the same.
The House team proceeded to a retreat in Mombasa on Friday. It pieced together the report on whether the sugar is fit. The committee also relied on findings of the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KBS) to make the report.Kebs was among the government entities the committee cited in its progress report of being complicit in the manner they handled the whole sugar saga.
“We have not received report from the Government Chemist. That in itself is an indictment on the body,” said Kanini on Friday at his KICC office.
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He raised fears the joint-committee might have to compile the report without the input of the test results. “Not receiving a report in itself is also a report. We will write a report that they refused to give us a report,” Kanini said.
A source familiar with the ongoing tests at the institution yesterday said the results are not yet out.
Kanini however expressed confidence the joint committee will deliver a credible report that will not only address the question of the status of the imported sugar but problems in the industry.
The joint team was formed to probe the contraband sugar after Samburu West MP Naisula Lesuuda requested a ministerial statement on the safety of the sugar imported following last year’s duty-free window.
Kebs, on whose report the committee will rely, last week presented a preliminary findings report indicating the presence of copper and lead in the sugar seized in Eastleigh and Ruiru.
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Appearing before the joint committee, acting MD Moses Ikiara said they had tested sugar in various retail shops and found a good chunk unfit for human consumption.
Most of the sugar picked randomly from the retail shops failed the moisture, colour,polarisation and purity tests, he said.
Without the Government Chemist’s input, the committee might find itself at the centre of another heated debate when it presents its report.
Early this month, the committee met the wrath of MPs who furiously rejected its preliminary report which they said was shoddy and a cover-up for sugar barons.
Majority leader Aden Duale and his Minority counterpart John Mbadi led the House in rubbishing the report.