Kenyans Warned Of Consuming Contaminated Sugar

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.

Marvin Chege Marvin Chege
Jul 31, 2025 - 17:30
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Kenyans Warned Of Consuming Contaminated Sugar
A photo of brown sugar. /THE SPRUCE EATS

You are reading this article in danger of consuming contaminated sugar anytime from now, if sentiments by the United Opposition are anything to go by.

In a press release on Thursday, Wiper Movement Party Leader Kalonzo Musyoka claimed that 25,000 metric tonnes of sugar unfit for human consumption are destined to hit the Kenyan market.

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.

Kalonzo Musyoka speaking during a press conference on July 31, 2025. /KALONZO MUSYOKA

"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.

The Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), charged with vetting the quality of products destined for the Kenyan market, was yet to address the matter by the time of publication.

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.

Key government agencies linked to the scandal included KEBS, the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), and the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA).

The sugar was initially taken to a Thika facility, where it was supposed to be converted into ethanol, but it disappeared before the process could take place.

Sugar imports at the Mombasa port. /NATION MEDIA GROUP

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