Smuggled sugar from Somalia poses threat to Kenya's small-scale farmers
Security officers from borderline sub-counties in Garissa identified Amuma, Wellmarer, Hamey, Liboi, Sariraha, and Sinai among others as notorious cut lines used to smuggle illegal goods.
Over 2,000 metric tonnes of sugar smuggled from Somalia into the country using cut lines along the porous border is threatening the local sugar firms that serve as a livelihood to millions of Kenyan small-scale farmers, stakeholders engagement in Garissa heard.
The stakeholder engagement meeting held in Garissa town on Monday by the Border Management Secretariat (BMS) and the Ministry of Agriculture revealed that illegal import poses both security and economic challenges in the country.
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Rashid Khator, Secretary of Administration in the Ministry of Agriculture said the government was investing to increase the production of local farmers yet smugglers were posing a challenge to small-scale farmers who were relying on local sugar firms to sell the farm produce.
"We need to address this challenge where over 2,000 metric tonnes of sugar were smuggled into the country using lorries and small vehicles," he said.
Addressing security heads, officers from immigration, Kenya Revenue Authority, and other relevant ministries of the border management committees, he stated both the ministry and the BMS were conducting an assessment in Garissa, Wajir and Mandera counties to curb the smuggling of sugar and other products that were threatening production of the small scale farmers.
He said the assessment report will help to identify the mode of smuggling, cut lines and porosity, loss of revenue smugglers involved and implications on national security and local market.
Kennedy Nyaiyo, Secretary of the BMS said sugar and other illegal products smuggled have been a big challenge to the Kenyan sugar firms and efforts are being made to address the challenge.
"We are assessing the extent of porosity in the borderline counties in Northeastern, the illegal entry points, understanding the nature of porosity and all involved," he said.
He emphasised how almost all shops in the region were selling illegal goods.
"How can we prosper as a country when we are not promoting our homegrown products?" he posed.
Mohamed Mwabudzo, the Garissa County Commissioner said the porosity had existed for long and it involves local and foreign smugglers.
He said the security officers manning the border and the Kenya Revenue Authority intercepted several smuggled goods but the large border line and cut lines remained a big challenge.
"The local communities are consuming a lot of substandard goods that pose a danger to their health. These goods don't pass the Kenya Bureau of Standards for check-ups. Foreign countries were taking advantage of this gap," he revealed.
He said the local traders prefer smuggling goods from Somalia to transporting from Nairobi due to the transport cost and local consumers access the smuggled products due to the cheap price.
He encouraged the local sugar firms to establish depots in the region where local traders can access the commodity at a friendly price.
He urged security officers manning the border to remain committed to addressing the challenges of the illegal products.
Security officers from borderline sub-counties in Garissa identified Amuma, Wellmarer, Hamey, Liboi, Sariraha, and Sinai among others as notorious cut lines used to smuggle illegal goods.
They identified road infrastructure, lack of enough security personnel, corruption, security threats and lack of enhanced security surveillance technology as major impediments to the fight against smuggling of sugar and other products.
Apart from sugar, the security officers identified commodities such as rice, powdered milk, spaghetti, cooking oil, cosmetics, sugar, cigarettes and vehicle spare parts as widely smuggled products from Somalia.
The security officials also revealed how traders in Garissa were repackaging smuggled sugar using sacks branded Mumias Sugar to beat police arrest.
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