Court exhibits, vanish from KRA Eldoret custom warehouse
Eldoret, Wednesday April 19, 2023
K.N.A by Kiptanui Cherono
Court exhibits worth millions of shillings have disappeared mysteriously from the Kenya Revenue Authority, KRA customs warehouse in Eldoret.
In an internal memo whose contents were revealed during an engagement meeting between National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) and multiagency committee members in Uasin Gishu county, the stolen items were court exhibits whose hearing cases were due in court.
According to the memo signed by D. Nyamache, unauthorized persons accessed the customs warehouse between March 31st and April 3rd 2023 and disappeared with 1196 boxes of supermatch and seven boxes of Pal-mall cigarettes with a revenue liability of Sh. 54,363,668 and 1180 jerricans of 20 litres of ethanol with a tax liability of Sh. 9,855,281.
The NACADA team was led by its chairman Rev. Dr Stephen Kiptoem Mairori and chief executive officer, CEO, Victor Okioma and Elijah Lagat, a board member.
The report suspects the theft to be an internal job since locks to the customs warehouse were not interfered with nor the alarm was triggered during the period.
KRA recommends that the directorate of criminal investigations should take over investigations on the incident while the KRA internal division investigates the culpability of any staff involvement. The incident was reported at Eldoret police station.
“The security agencies are still investigating the loss and the customs warehouse is currently a crime scene hence stock-taking has not been done to quantify the quantity of ethanol stolen,” the report indicates.
During the meeting, Uasin Gishu county police commander Benjamin Mwanthi said in the last one-week Police netted
The commander who was posted to the county less than one month ago said he held consultative meetings with chiefs, their assistants, village elders, Nyumba Kumi officials and community policing officials after realizing there was a serious gap in information flow between security agencies and wananchi.
“After the consultative meetings, we began serious operations relying on information from the community within the six sub-counties of Uasin Gishu, so far the operation has received tremendous support from the members of the public and the crackdown will intensify in the coming days,” said Mwanthi
The county police commander said members of the public have also been raising serious issues of integrity, not only among police officers but also chiefs and their assistants as well as county enforcement officers whom they say receive tips from notorious brewers.
“They even know the figures that are given and the days the compromise money is collected. In Langas police officers collect Sh. 5,000 every Wednesday and Thursday, in Ainabkoi the collection is every Wednesday,” said Mwanthi.
The Police boss has confirmed that some of the notorious brewers of the illicit liquor have been brewing chang’aa within Eldoret Town, “We even confiscated eight drums inside Eldoret town through information from members of the public,” he added. Other notorious areas in brewing alcohol include Haruma and Kamukunji.
Uasin Gishu county commissioner Dr. Eddyson Nyale said during the rapid result initiative, RRI from 2nd December and March 31st 2023, raids done by multi-agency teams netted 11,412 litres of changáa, and arrested 112 brewers who have since been taken to court.
More than 25,000 litres of busaa, 65,800 litres of kangara and 70 litres of molasses were also netted.
During the same period, the county commissioner also revealed that 75 kilogrammes of bhang with a street value of Sh. 152,00 was confiscated and two peddlers were arrested.
Several cartons of second-generation and counterfeited alcohol and uncustomed cigarettes were also netted during the raids.
Courtesy K.N.A
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