The Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) has defended its decision to clear a controversial 27,000-tonne raw sugar shipment, telling lawmakers that the consignment was inspected and certified in South Africa before being exported to Kenya under the country’s Pre-Export Verification of Conformity (PVoC) programme.
Appearing before the National Assembly’s Trade, Industry and Cooperatives Committee, KEBS said the sugar underwent the required inspection by its contracted verification firm in South Africa and met the necessary standards before shipment. The agency maintained that it only conducts additional verification tests where there is credible evidence of non-compliance or other irregularities.
However, members of the committee called for imported consignments to be subjected to independent testing upon arrival in Kenya, arguing that relying solely on inspection reports from the exporting country leaves room for contamination or other changes that may occur during transportation.
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KEBS told the committee that its mandate is to ensure sugar released into the Kenyan market complies with national quality standards, rather than routinely repeating inspections already carried out under the PVoC system. The bureau added that the imported sugar was intended exclusively for industrial refining and that laboratory tests are conducted on the processed sugar before it is cleared for sale.
The agency further disclosed that it had already sampled part of the refined sugar, confirmed through laboratory analysis that it met the required national standards, and issued the relevant clearance certificate. It also insisted that safeguards have been put in place to ensure raw sugar cannot enter the retail market before undergoing processing.
The parliamentary inquiry has since expanded beyond concerns over tax exemptions, storage and refinery operations to examine the standards and regulatory framework governing the shipment’s importation. Lawmakers are seeking to establish whether the consignment was legally imported, safely handled and processed in line with Kenya’s regulatory requirements.
The sugar shipment has remained under intense parliamentary scrutiny in recent weeks after legislators questioned nearly KSh3 billion in tax exemptions granted during its importation, inconsistencies surrounding the operational status of the refinery linked to the consignment, and gaps in documentation tracking its movement from the Port of Mombasa to storage facilities in Nairobi and Kisumu.
