EDITORIAL: Contraband sugar scandal needs quick, decisive action

The seizure of thousands of bags of suspected contraband sugar in multiple locations across the country is a matter that warrants full scale investigations.

The sheer size of the seized consignments points to a thriving underworld trade that authorities must quickly deal with to safeguard human safety and the economy as well.

A black economy is chaotic and destructive especially when it involves highly sensitive products such as sugar.

A key concern is the health risk the sugar poses to millions of consumers in the country because its suitability for human intake remains unclear. Shockingly the Interior Ministry has even gone on record that a consignment of sugar seized at a facility in Nairobi contained toxic substances such as mercury.

The mess doesn’t end there. Traders in the black economy are also a direct hit to the economy because they avoid taxes forcing the state to increase taxes on those who pay them in order to meet collection targets to finance national needs.

This results in serious economic inequalities between legal and illegal business and garbles fair competition. Further, the in-flow of illegal consignments of sugar poses a threat to the survival of millers and the livelihood of households and workers that depend on the country’s struggling sugar industry.

The crackdown on illegal sugar and other products must therefore be stepped up to root out the menace. Destroying cartels behind the illegal trade is nonetheless not an easy task and the state must be prepared for long draw and frustrating battles.

State agencies must go beyond raiding premises holding suspected contraband and round-up all the crooks pushing the illegal business.

Winning the war against these cartels would require an honest and comprehensive audit on how they made such deep in-roads under the noses of state agencies such as the Kenya Revenue Authority(KRA), the Kenya Ports Authority(KPA), the Kenya Bureau of Standards(Kebs) as well the police.

Some state officers must have conspired with cartels to push the illegal trade in sugar and they must be punished for their actions because such large consignments of illegal products would not have entered the local market undetected.

The country’s recent sugar import windows should be audited for potential abuse by phony traders who may have taken advantage to ship in illegal consignments.