Emerging details indicate that some sugar factories based in Busia County have been illegally importing cane from neighbouring Uganda for their operations.
This follows Tuesday's incident where a multi agency team comprising officials from Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), the police and Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (Kephis) nabbed three cane trucks on their way to Kenya.
It has since been discovered that the trucks make their way into the country through Buteba and Alupe, both of which are illegal routes, during the day and night.
The confiscation of the trucks and their drivers was confirmed by County Commissioner Jacob Narengo, who warned against the same going forward.
“Factories that want raw materials from Uganda must follow the due process by getting an approval from the relevant agencies,” he said.
He added that the drivers, whose trucks are being held at the Busia One Stop Border Post, will be arraigned and charged with smuggling and using ungazetted routes.
Among the suspected companies is the Busia Sugar Industry which has since denied the claims, saying that it gets its cane from its contracted farmers from the region.
“The allegation by some individuals that we are smuggling sugarcane could have resulted from seeing our tractors and other private trucks contracted by BSI to ferry cane from border areas on the Kenyan side,” it said through its Public Relations Officer Stephen Siachire.