Rai Group Limited Chairman and owner Jaswant Rai has distanced himself and his companies from the ongoing contraband sugar debate.
In an exclusive interview with NTV on Thursday, Rai whose companies have been largely mentioned in the ongoing sugar scandal sought to clear his name.
The companies in question include West Kenya Sugar, Sukari Limited Amnei, and Menengai Refineries companies, which have been accused of involvement in the importation of poisonous sugar, stained with mercury and copper deposits, hence unfit for human consumption.
Jaswant who admitted to having imported the sugar, however, noted that his firms had the product branded ‘not for sale’ before shipment to the factories for further processing, and had no plans of releasing it for sale.
‘’We are doing a clean business and had cleared with all the relevant bodies before importing the sugar due to cane shortage in the nation,’’ he said.
‘’The sugar that has been confiscated in the shops out there was not imported by any of my firms as we use white sacks but those ones were in brownish sacks. Additionally, to avoid confusion, my sacks are clearly branded not for sale to ensure that the sugar is shipped to the factories for further processing before it is released for consumption,’’ he added.
Coming only a few days after 9 lorries belonging to Nakuru-based Menengai Refineries, another of his companies, were impounded in Rongo while shipping the sugar, he maintained that no law was broken.
‘’There is no law preventing any of my companies from ferrying the product and it is not right that I am being demonized for importing sugar when almost all the other sugar factories did the same,’’ said Jaswant.