KEBS Responds To Claims Of Planned Distribution Of Contaminated Sugar
These reassurances come in response to claims by the United Opposition, led by Wiper Party leader Kalonzo Musyoka, alleging that 25,000 tonnes of contaminated sugar were on the verge of being released into the Kenyan market.
Viral Tea Ke Writer 
The Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) has dismissed allegations suggesting plans to distribute contaminated sugar in the country.
In a statement issued on July 31, the agency termed the claims as false and malicious, emphasising that it rigorously tests all food products before they are allowed into the Kenyan market.
"KEBS would like to dispel these allegations and ascertain that both locally produced and imported sugar undergo mandatory and rigorous inspection, testing, and certification before release to the market," the Bureau stated.
A photo of brown sugar. /THE SPRUCE EATS
According to Kalonzo, the sugar which had docked at the Port of Mombasa was already on its way to Western Kenya to be repackaged and sold to Kenyans.
"We are aware of a cargo of 25,000MT of sugar that recently landed in our Port of Mombasa. These 25,000 MT of sugar are already on their way to a Western Kenya sugar factory to be repackaged and sold to unsuspecting Kenyans," he stated in part.
Although the opposition members didn’t disclose where the sugar came from, they stated it had already been deemed unfit for human consumption.
"Yet, the Ruto regime has quickly cleared it. What kind of man is this? What kind of a regime is this that puts their own reprehensible needs before that of the public's well-being?" he posed.
As such, the United Opposition is demanding that this consignment, already earmarked, be publicly condemned and destroyed.
"Fellow Kenyans, this is a criminal regime that not only resorts to wilful violence against its people and physically harms its populace, making them unfit for public consumption of goods, but also attempts to limit its people via wilful and defunding education, which is a right," the statement continued.
Sadly, this isn’t the first time Kenyans have been entangled in a tainted food scandal, with sugar often at the centre of controversy.
In June 2024, the Departmental Committee on Trade presented a report on the case of contaminated sugar that mysteriously vanished from a warehouse in Thika in 2023.
The findings revealed that the unfit sugar was illegally released into the market and sold to unsuspecting consumers, with the report placing blame squarely on government failure.
