Guns, Sex Toys Among Illegal Items Seized At JKIA [PHOTOS]

Customs officials from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) under the leadership of Commissioner-General Humphrey Wattanga impounded a series of prohibited items that were intended to be smuggled through the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi.

Wattanga was accompanied by Tourism Cabinet Secretary (CS) Alfred Mutua as they did a media tour of the JKIA Passenger Terminal on Tuesday, November 7 where passenger clearance usually takes place.

In a statement, the KRA boss argued that part of the tax authority's mission is to ensure that passengers are accorded the dignity and respect they deserve and see to it that their belongings are handled with grace.

Sex toys among prohibited items seized at JKIA airport in Nairobi on November 7, 2023. /VIRALTEAKE

"To gain a firsthand understanding of the traveller's experience, we walked through these halls with Sally Serem, Chief Manager Passengers' Clearance JKIA, who was gracious enough to show us how things work and also take us through some of the restricted goods," he stated in part.

Among the items seized at the airport were an array of guns including handguns, revolver pistols, hunting rifles and rounds of ammunition whose sales in Kenya are limited and subject to government clearance.

It was however not immediately clear whether the firearms were ferried into the country by one person or intended for sale via the black market.

Mutua and his team also recovered sex toys that passengers flying in through JKIA were carrying in their person.

A sex toy is an object or device that is primarily used to facilitate sexual pleasure, such as a dildo, artificial vagina or vibrator. Many popular sex toys are designed to resemble human genitals and may be vibrating or non-vibrating. 

In Kenya, sex toys are among the most-seized items at JKIA alongside shisha, drones and whitening creams as they are prohibited in the country. Prohibited items intercepted at the entry point can’t be returned.

In photos seen by Viral Tea, travellers carrying new and yet-to-be-unboxed smartphones were seized from travellers alongside other electronic items by revenue officials stationed at the international airport. 

KRA officials are mandated to confiscate goods that are worth more than Ksh75,700 (USD500) and are designated as personal items.

Mutua organised the media tour after scheduling a meeting with Wattanga with the view of addressing the uproar that ensued over the taxman's enhanced efforts to collect revenue at JKIA.

Notably, the CS in October at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) while addressing stakeholders on the Tourism sector marketing strategy, called out KRA Customs officers based at the airport for harassing tourists who fly into the country via JKIA on a visit from other countries.

Mutua explained that tourists are treated harshly by KRA officers on arrival in the country, which he said discourages them from coming back to Kenya, revealing that the officers at times resort to measures that infringe on their privacy while conducting checks on their luggage.

"When our tourists come and they have carried two cameras and shoes, and they want to do some shopping, they are asked to open their luggage to look at the kind of contents. They hold their inner wears we harass our visitors when they come to this country at the airport, then we wonder why they don't come back," lamented Mutua.

"You go to Rwanda they don't harass you; same with South Africa, Dubai etc. Do these countries not collect taxes? Why are we harassing our visitors here? A woman is paraded with her innerwear by the KRA officials, they will never come back to Kenya."

A KRA customs official with unboxed phones among undeclared goods at JKIA on November 7, 2023. /SETH OLALE