National Assembly Majority leader Aden Duale has implied that Kabras (West Kenya Sugar Factory) and Ndhiwa Sugar factory owner, Jaswant Singh Rai is the importer of the contraband sugar nabbed by the government.
Speaking on the floor of the house on Tuesday, the Garissa Town MP said that the businessman sits in the Kenya Forest Service Board yet he is the biggest logger in the country.
The legislator told the house that Rai is enjoying protection from high ranking government officials.
Duale also admitted to having been named as among those involved in the illegal business but assured other MPs that his family is only involved in hotel and pharmaceutical businesses.
“We have never done a single sugar business. We are going to tell you who are involved in this illegal business. The problem in Kenya is that people look for chicken thieves. I want to challenge Matiang’i to go for the real people behind this,” he said.
Rai was on May 30, 2018 appointed to the KFS board by Environment CS Keriaki Tobiko. The billionaire revived the collapsed PanPaper Mill and owns RaiPly, makers of chip boards, ceilings, block boards, parquet and wooden tiles and polythene bags for sugar companies.
Reports indicate that he bought the company at Sh.900 million and part of the deal was to inject Sh.6 billion into the paper mill over a five to ten year period.
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But he has denied importing the mercury laced sugar saying that his company is often a target of counterfeiters and unscrupulous traders and packers who import and pass off contraband products in their name.
“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 licence to import bulk brown sugar by the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA),” he said.
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