Three Eastleigh businessmen previously arrested after been found in possession of Sugar unfit for human consumption have been charged with offering for sale substandard white sugar contrary to the standard act.
The court heard that Dahir Ahmed Hassan, Mohammed Dahir Ahmed and Ahmed Sheikh Mohammed were found offering for sale 922 bags of 50kgs each of substandard white sugar valued at Sh3 million contrary to the requirement of the Kenya Standard Specification for white sugar (KS EAS) 16:2010.
The three are alleged to have committed the offense on 4th June 2018 at Diamond Wholesalers stores in Eastleigh within Nairobi, jointly with others not before court.
On the second count, the accused persons were charged with offering for sale substandard brown sugar. The three are said to have been found offering for sale 204 bags of 50kgs each of substandard brown sugar valued at Sh 679,000.
Further businessmen were charged with applying the KEBS standardization mark on white sugar, Kabras brand without permit.
Additionally, they were charged with offering for sale brown sugar under poor hygienic conditions. The court heard that the accused persons were found repackaging the commodity under poor hygienic condition rendering the product unsafe and compromise its quality contrary to the requirement of the Kenya Standard Specification For ( KS EAS)39.
Lastly, the three were charged with offering for sale substandard edible cooking oil. The court heard that the accused persons were found offering for sale 648 jerricans of 20 liters each of Premium Safari Cooking Oil valued at Sh1.5 Million.
They denied the charges before Senior Principal Magistrate Martha Mutuku who granted them a cash bail of Sh300, 000.The case will be heard on 3rd September 2018.
Police had earlier brought the three accused persons before court seeking to have them detained for three to complete investigations.
They were being suspected to have distributed the product believed to be unfit for human consumption.
In their affidavit, the police said that investigations were expected to be carried out by different agencies including counterfeit agency, KRA, Kenya Ports Authority, KEBs, government chemist and office of the Director of public prosecutions.
“These agencies require time to sample and conduct analysis of the sugar found in possession of the suspects,” said the investigating officer.
