Mitchell Cotts Container Freight Station (CFS) officials in Mombasa have denied that the alleged 780.2 metric tonnes of contaminated sugar stored at their warehouse was released to market.
Mitchell Cotts CFS director in charge of operations James Rariaya said samples have been taken for quality assurance testing by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) blaming the media for propagating unsubtanstiated information.
Addressing journalists at the company’s Kibarani offices in Mombasa on Monday, Rariaya noted that the contaminated sugar is part of a consignment that arrived at the port of Mombasa on October, 9, 2023 from Mauritius aboard MSC Eagle F. vessel.
“The ship partially sunk for over twenty-four hours outside the Kilindini channel and a total of 13 containers absorbed water. We have so far sorted the affected consignment while the other bags of sugar in the 33 containers are intact,” he told journalists.
He further said that no contaminated sugar was released to the market rubbishing such media reports.
He disclosed that all the consignment was sorted in the presence of KRA and KEBS officials.
“All the waterlogged bags were segregated and stored in diferent warehouse awaiting destruction which will be done under the supervision of all the relevant authorities. The the other intact cargo, a sample has been taken by the concerned authorities for quality assurance tests,” he added.
The consignment worth over 200 million shillings was imported by a Mitchell Cotts employee Rehema Badi who denied that she was involved in dubious business deals and that she never repackaged the sugar and released it to the market while colluding with KRA and KEBS officials.
