
Sugar scam mastermind arrested
Detectives detained Chrispus Waithaka, the alleged mastermind of the theft of condemned sugar valued at Sh163 million, at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) on Saturday night after his arrival from Dubai.
On April 20, Mr. Waithaka, a director of Assets and Cargo Limited, was among those who saw the customs seals being broken on the 40 containers of condemned sugar.
Before being stopped by immigration officers in Nairobi, the suspect had been reported to security services and a travel ban was in effect.
Sugar scam mastermind arrestedÂ
The cops gave him over the DCI detectives, who took him into prison at Kamukunji Police Station and held him there until his court appearance this morning.
The defendant provided a copy of a Sh100,000 interim bail order during the arrest that his attorney claimed to have received from the Mombasa High Court on Friday.
According to a police report, the man had a copy of an interim order for anticipatory bail of Sh100,000 issued by the Mombasa High Court in Criminal Miscellaneous Application number E067/2023 dated May 19, 2023.
After completing its investigations into the sugar scam, the Directorate of Public Prosecutions is now in possession of the case file. It is anticipated that it would approve charges against senior members of the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) and Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), among other suspects.
Felix Koskei, the head of the civil service, revealed on Wednesday of last week that 27 employees from the Kebs, KRA, National Police Service (NPS), DCI, and Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) had been suspended in order to make space for inquiries into the erroneous release of the sugar that had been condemned.
The sugar, which was brought into the nation in 2018 and came in 20,000 bags, each weighing 50 kilograms, was deemed to be expired by the KEB. The agency then gave the owner the option of paying to have them destroyed or reshipped.
However, Mr. Koskei stated in a statement last week that “in fulfillment of its statutory mandate, the Kebs National Standards Council approved the destruction by conversion of the consignment for industrial ethanol use.”