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Attorney General Justin Muturi has come out to defend the role his office played in the release of contaminated sugar into the market.
Muturi in a statement dated June 9 said his office played an advisory role in the matter, adding that the sugar was released into the market against his guidance and that of the Kenya Revenue Authority.
Muturi said the Directorate of Criminal Investigations had on January 14 written to his office to seek legal advice on how to pursue the case after the release of the sugar into the market.
This, Muturi said, was to aid in the investigation of offences to commit a felony, and abuse of office among other offences.
The KRA had also written to his office on December 14 2022, seeking legal advice on how to go about disposing of the condemned sugar.
This comes days after the Kenya Bureau of Standards acting MD Esther Ngari while appearing before the Parliament’s Trade Committee shifted the blame to the office of the AG and KRA.
In the statement, Muturi said his office convened a meeting with KRA and KEBS leadership on January 19 to discuss the matter.
“Following the meeting, this office rendered a legal opinion to KRA and copied the same to KEBs and guided that the proposed method for the disposal of the condemned sugar was consistent with the provisions of the law,” Muturi said.
“The office concurred with KRA’s decision to recover import duty on the subject sugar since the sugar was being allowed into the country for alternative use namely as a raw material to manufacture ethanol” he added.
According to Muturi, whereas KEBs recommended the release of the condemned sugar for distillation into industrial ethanol, the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) on the other hand proposed disposal of the condemned sugar through biological decomposition at an approved facility.
KEBs hence were of the view that the proposed distillation process was in essence use of the sugar hence should attract full import duties as per the Harmonised System (HS) code.
Under the code, raw sugar has only one tariff classification and there is no tariff classification for condemned sugar.
Muturi said it further recommended that going forward, KRA and KEBs should work together to develop a comprehensive framework for the disposal of prohibited and condemned goods which may be subject to payment of import duty. BY THE STAR