Kumbe, 27,000 TONNES of sugar just vanished? Parliament is now on a manhunt after officials claimed imported sugar deemed unfit went missing somewhere between Mombasa and Nairobi, and bana, the answers they're getting are fishier than a Kisumu fish market on Saturday morning.

The Sugar Saga That's Got MPs Fuming

Picture this: Over 27,000 metric tonnes of imported sugar rolls into Mombasa port, gets tested by the Kenya Bureau of Standards, and apparently is only fit for industrial refining—not for your tea, ndio? But here's where it gets spicy, sawa. When lawmakers started asking tough questions about where this consignment actually ended up, the answers started sounding like a badly scripted telenovela. The National Assembly Committee on Trade, Industry and Cooperatives is now investigating whether this sugar got diverted into the local market or if it really stayed locked up in those bonded warehouses like officials claim.

Committee chair Benard Shinali wasn't having any of it. "There is no clearance document provided in your documentation," he fired at Kenya Sugar Board officials. Aki, imagine—27,000 tonnes of sugar moving between warehouses and there's NO document showing WHO authorized the movement? That's the kind of red flag that would make a traffic police officer blush. The Kenya Ports Authority bonded warehouse is supposedly where it's secured, but when it came time to move it from Mombasa to Nairobi on May 2, things started looking suspicious.

Officials Playing Hide and Seek With the Truth

The Kenya Sugar Board's CEO Jude Chesire and his crew swore down that the sugar never entered the local market. "It was well secured and kept intact at the Kenya Ports Authority bonded warehouse in Mombasa," claimed director Samwel Kembo. But here's the thing—MP Marianne Keitany asked THE question everyone was thinking: "If a release letter was given, why would you move the sugar from one bonded warehouse to another bonded warehouse in Nairobi? Unless there is a diversion trick being done here." Sio uone? That's not a crazy suspicion—that's just common sense!

Now they're claiming they've got police officers guarding the consignment in Nairobi AND electronic tracking on trucks heading to Kisumi for refining. But MP Anthony Aluoch wasn't convinced, warning officials against "misleading the public" and reminding everyone that PREVIOUS consignments declared unsafe still somehow found their way into the market. Lakini, now we're supposed to trust THIS time? The committee demanded seal serial numbers, bonded warehouse details, and Nairobi storage facility records—basically, they want PROOF, not stories.

The Jukwaa Take: When 27,000 tonnes of suspicious sugar disappears and officials start giving answers with more holes than a Nairobi pothole, Kenyans have every right to be worried about what's actually ending up in their groceries.

📰 Source: Capital FM Kenya