Sunday October 3, 2021
By Claire Wanja
The government has fired a warning to rogue businessmen who are still involved in smuggling in the country contraband goods that stern action will be taken against them.
Speaking after witnessing the destruction of contraband goods which included milk powder that were recovered in Garissa while being transported to Nairobi, Garissa County commissioner Boaz Cherutich said that the border remained closed.
The consignment is suspected to have been imported from the neighboring Somalia.
Cherutich said that stern action will be taken against anyone found smuggling contraband goods into the country noting this ends creating unnecessary competition in the market.
“We want to caution the few individuals who are still involved in this kind of illegal business that we are not going to tolerate this. some of these products are not even fit for human consumption. That is why we are destroying them to send a clear message to all those dealing with illegal goods that their days are numbered,” he said.
While commending the security officers, the county commissioner said that the government will not relent in its effort to ensure that contraband goods do not get into the Kenyan market.
“We want to encourage the security officers to continue working round the clock a a multi agency team to ensure that any contraband or uncustomed goods are arrested and recovered,” said the county commissioner.
Cherutich who was accompanied by the county security team, officials from Kenya Bureau of Standard amongst, KRA other state agencies said all state agencies will work closely to ensure substandard products that are potentially harmful to Kenyans don’t find their way into the country.
“We want to protect legitimate businesses who pay taxes to the government from unfair market competition,” he noted.
The milk powder recovered included nine boxes each containing 6 tins of 6.5 kgs and some ten cartons of 200 sachets each sachet weighing 50gms.
The total value of the consignment was ksh 156,000 .
Early this year, during a visit in Garissa Interior CS Fred Matiang’i instructed security agents in North Eastern to deal ruthlessly with contraband trade.
Matiang’i said that contraband trade is not only hurting business in Kenya but a direct revenue to Somali based Al-Shabaab terror group.
He said a mulita-agency security team will soon start unprecedented crock down on the illicit trade.
“We are going to start an unprecedented crackdown on contraband trade that is thriving in this part of the country because it is direct revenue to Al-Shabaab,” Matiang’i said.