Kenyan parliament rejects sugar probe
NAIROBI - Kenyan lawmakers have rej ected a report by two parliamentary committees that recommended the finan e inister and a a i- net colleague be investigated over their handling of sugar imports, local newspapers reported yesterday. The privately-owned Daily Nation and Standard newspapers said lawmakers had voted on Thursday to reject the joint report by parliament’s agriculture and trade and industries committees, which was submitted to parliament last week. It recommended that Finance Minister Henry otich and Adan Mohamed, who is now ast African Community minister for Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, should be investigated but was previously minister over the sugar imports last year. Neither otich nor Mohamed have publicly commented on the report. Calls to them yesterday went unanswered. The Kenyan government has undertaken an unprecedented crackdown against what it calls illicit goods, to help boost the country’s manufacturing sector. The report said otich had authorised imports that led to a market oversupply of more than 4 , tonnes of sugar. It said Mohamed had failed to supervise the country’s standards agency, which falls under the ministry he ran, leading to imports of sugar that was not safe for human consumption. The two did not respond to re uests for comment from euters when it was published. Kenya consumes , tonnes of sugar annually but domestic production has fallen due to high costs, old and inefficient sugar-crushing machinery, and mismanagement and theft of farmers’ funds. ocal output was nearly , tonnes of sugar last year, a 4 percent drop from about , tonnes a year earlier, largely as a result of a severe drought in the first uarter of 2 , according to government data.