Mumias Sugar loses bid to destroy seized sugar

KAKAMEGA: Mumias Sugar Company has lost a bid to destroy 278 bags of sugar worth Sh1.2 million that were seized from a Mombasa businessman on February 1, last year.

On Friday, the High Court in Mombasa rejected an application by the sugar firm seeking to destroy the sugar and instead allowed the National Environment Management Authority and Counterfeit Authority to destroy the commodity at a dumping site in Mombasa.

Early this year, a lower court allowed the sugar firm to destroy the sugar after ruling that bags used to pack it were counterfeits, but Abdi Samad Ibrahim Hussein who, allegedly, imported the sugar appealed in a higher court seeking to have it returned to him.

Kenya Sugar Board officials seized the sugar on claims it was illegally imported but Mr Hussein claimed he had lawfully bought the sugar already packed from the sugar firm.