You did a shoddy job, MPs tell off colleagues probing sugar imports

National Assembly Agriculture Committee members led by Chairman Adan Haji, Florence Mutua and Gabriel Kago Mukuha addressing the media on the controversial Sugar at Parliament on Wednesday 20/06/2018. [Boniface Okendo,Standard]

Members of Parliament have trashed a preliminary report on contraband sugar in a stinging indictment of their fellow legislators.

The report by the joint committee of Agriculture and Trade, which was expected to be of immense public interest, was instead dismissed as ‘ridiculous and a joke’ after it was tabled before the National Assembly yesterday.

Lawmakers criticised the findings as being long on general observations but short on specifics; in particular the faces behind the importation of contaminated sugar and which officials were to blame for the mess.

MPs said it was a circus for the joint committee to give hollow recommendations and indefinite findings after blowing taxpayers’ money grilling witnesses in the sugar saga and flying to inspect go-downs in Mombasa, Nakuru and western Kenya.

It did not help the committee’s cause that the report, which was described as a whitewash, was tabled only a day after House leaders complained that they were stunned at how some members of the probe team were cozy with witnesses.

The lawmakers said the country expected a conclusive answer on whether there was mercury in the imported sugar, and the names behind the unscrupulous trade that has killed the local millers.

There were jeers in the House when committee co-chair Kanini Kega (Kieni) was halfway through reading the preliminary report, a stark indicator of MPs’ disappointment.

National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale and his Minority counterpart John Mbadi were blunt in their judgment, saying the country had been taken for a ride.

In fact, they said the committee - which had 36 members and sat for seven days - should abandon the matter and let other investigative agencies handle it.

“I am a very sad person today that a joint parliamentary committee used public resources to come up with this inconclusive report. This kind of recommendation I am seeing here, you cannot get it even in a county assembly,” Duale said.

“Parliament does not act in vain. It has teeth to bite,” said Duale, adding, “It is very sad that we don’t have a definite answer that there was mercury or not, and if there was tax evasion and by who.”

Mbadi described the report as ‘just a joke’, stating that the committee failed to press Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i to table samples of sugar that he found to contain mercury.

Dr Matiang’i had announced that mercury and other hazardous chemicals were found in some of the sugar that was seized in Eastleigh. He later made a U-turn when he appeared before the joint team, saying the tests were not conclusive.

“This matter did not come from the blues. Somebody said there was mercury in sugar in our market. This report is just a joke; those who reported that the sugar contained mercury should have tabled the samples they tested,” said Mbadi.

“To be honest, there is no need to give them more time. Other agencies can probe the matter,” he added.

It was not a surprise that the report was dismissed as underwhelming, as issues of perception started swirling over how the committee handled some of the witnesses that appeared before it at County Hall, where it conducted its business.

For instance, when businessman Jaswant Rai – owner of West Kenya Sugar– appeared, MPs were captured in a photograph falling over each other to shake hands with the witnesses.

In another session, a committee member asked a witness about the number of locals he had hired from his county, digressing from the gist of the probe.

The committee was also inundated with non-members (friends of the committee), who, in some occasions, appeared to hold brief for certain interests.

Mr Kega yesterday told the House they worked under difficult circumstances due to the large number of friends of the committee.

The conduct of the committee caught the attention of Speaker Justin Muturi, who admonished them, saying committee business could not be reduced to hugs and kisses.

However, the co-chairs – Kega and Adan Haji (Mandera South) – defended the report, saying it was unfair for the House to trash it since they were given an extremely short timeline. “It is very unfair for us. We requested for 30 days and it’s the Leader of Majority who is now tearing the report who said the House could not give us more time,” said Kega.

He added: “Unless he (Duale) wants some specific answers and has interest in the matter, this preliminary report was meant to appraise the House.”

In the report, Kega said that all sugar imported - bagged or bulk - should undergo fresh tests, and if found unsuitable for human consumption be destroyed by a multi-agency team that has been aiding investigations.

Muturi directed the relevant State agencies to provide the committee with evidence in the next 10 days, indicating the safety of sugar in the market across the 47 counties.

The Kenya Bureau of Standards had issued conditions to regulate the importation of bulk sugar, which included one that the sugar must be bagged at the port of entry and transported to the factory for further processing before packaging for retail.

The committee observed that certain companies failed to comply with the outlined conditions by transporting the sugar in open trucks, storing the same under unhygienic conditions and exposing the commodity to contamination by handling it using machinery used for other industrial purposes.