A Mombasa High Court has directed that Phoenix Global Kenya Ltd’s Rice, valued at more than Ksh250 million, that had been condemned for destruction by the Kenya Bureau of Standards be released.
The rice was part of the consignments of sugar netted as part of the ongoing crackdown on corruption and which recently put the judiciary on the spot.
While giving the ruling, Judge Erick Ogola also ordered that the government pay the importer Ksh15 million in general damages for “unlawful and illegal” detention of the 10, 327 tonnes of rice.
In his judgment, Ogola argued that the integrity of the sampling done by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) was “questionable”, “the alleged size variations are negligible” and “the method used to determine the percentage of broken rice was not scientific.”
The company, owned by tycoon Bireni Jasani, had sued the multi-agency team, stating that it had unjustifiably denied the company access to the warehouse where its consignment was stored on allegations that the commodity was substandard.
The Multi-agency team, comprising of the Attorney-General, KRA, Kebs, the Anti-Counterfeit Agency, and the DCI, was appointed by the government to establish the quality of sugar, rice and other commodities in a crackdown on contraband goods.
According to the pre-inspection contracts, all goods clearly classified as having failed Kebs quality tests should either be returned to the country of origin or destroyed.
