Contraband sugar, ethanol importing companies unmasked

Citizen TV has learnt that the records of five out of the eight companies being probed over their alleged involvement in the importation of contraband sugar and ethanol have gone missing from the shelves of the registrar of companies.

Efforts by Citizen TV to ascertain who the directors of the companies being probed were have only yielded results on three companies.

On Monday, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Keriako Tobiko released a list of persons to be charged in connection with the importation of contraband sugar, ethanol and motor vehicles currently impounded at the port of Mombasa.

He further directed that eight companies and their directors be investigated within 7 days and their files resubmitted for his perusal.

Documents in our possession show the list of the directors of the Connectors Limited as Khen Kharis Mburu, Rachael Wanjiku Kharis and Nancy Muthoni Njau. Tomo Logistics had just two directors; Amos Kibagendi Gichana and Ronald Osiago Gichana, while Norken Traders had three directors listed, namely Abdi Mahmud Ali, Mohamed Hirabe Ali and Bashir Mohammed Warsame.

In the case of the five remaining companies, Besbro East Africa, Sea World Shipping, Asmand Trading, Homeline Consolidation Services, and Dot Com Consultants Limited, Citizen TV could not trace the records at the office of the registrar of companies as they were missing.

Ethanol worth 288 million shillings and the contraband sugar valued at 56 million shillings were seized in Mombasa between October and December 2015. The sugar is believed to have come from Brazil.

Sugar is a protected commodity which requires an import permit.

The directors behind a section of the companies implicated in the smuggling business, it appears, will remain shadowy figures.