Do you remember the crackdown that was going on in the Country on counterfeit goods? Where did it end? Well, Kenyans might have to consume 10 million kilos of rice the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) had condemned for destruction after a Mombasa court ordered the release of the consignment.
Taxpayers will also have to pay the importer Sh15 million in general damages for Kebs’ “unlawful and illegal detention” of the 10,327 tonnes of rice.
Delivering the ruling, Mombasa High Court Judge Eric Ogola also directed that Phoenix Global Kenya Ltd’s rice, valued at more than Sh250 million, and which is being held at a warehouse in Mombasa by a multiagency team, be released immediately.
“The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and Kebs are hereby ordered to forthwith open the warehouse and hand over to the petitioner (Phoenix) the said consignment of rice,” Justice Ogola said.
Phoenix Global Kenya Ltd, owned by tycoon Bireni Jasani, had sued the multiagency team, saying it had unjustifiably denied the company access to the warehouse where its consignment is stored on allegations that the commodity was substandard.
The judge argued that the integrity of the sampling carried out by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations was “questionable”, “the alleged size variations are negligible” and “the method used to determine the percentage of broken rice was not scientific”.
The rice was part of the consignments of sugar and rice netted as part of the ongoing crackdown on corruption, and which has recently put the Judiciary on the spot.
The multiagency team, comprising the Attorney-General, KRA, Kebs, the Anti-Counterfeit Agency (ACA) and DCI, was appointed by the government to establish the quality of sugar and other commodities in a crackdown on contraband goods.