MOSES KURIA RESIGNS?

As the edible oils scam unfolds with the country set to lose billions of shillings in the importation of 125 000 metric tonnes of edible oils, the Azimio coalition is now calling for the resignation of Trade Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria after documents linked him to the scam.
Documents in the possession of Citizen TV show that while there was no provision in law mandating the Treasury CS to waive duty except for emergency relief goods, the Kenya Gazette Notice number Vol. CXXIV No. 250 was used wrongly to import the edible oils since the gazette notice itself covered the drought response initiative and not edible oils.

It is not clear, why the taxman used the wrong gazette notice.

Further evidence showed that the Kenya National Trade Corporation single-sourced companies to import the oil, and sell it to it, instead of importing it directly from the manufacturers in Malaysia or Indonesia.

In a statement released late evening, Azimio criticised Kuria who they said was using insults to cover up his mistakes saying heads must roll.

The Azimio coalition also wants President William Ruto to come out and explain his extent of knowledge of the saga and what action he intends to take against those implicated.

“Mr. William Ruto must address the country on what he knew about this scam when he knew it and what he plans to do about it.”

“Heads must roll. Someone must take responsibility. Trade CS Moses Kuria take the lead and resign. It can’t be business as usual to defraud a suffering citizens then embark on a spree of abusing those same citizens whose monies have been stolen,” reads the statement.

The opposition further demanded that the Kenya National Trading Corporation tasked with overseeing the procurement comes clean and state if they were coerced to defraud Kenyans.

“Azimio la Umoja is deeply disappointed, but not surprised by what is now officially a grand scam of the Kenya Kwanza administration secretly ordering for duty-free importation of thousands of tonnes of cooking oil through the Kenya National Trading Corporation early this year,” says Azimio.

“We are shocked, but not surprised that KNTC, which was itself struggling financially and structurally then, never floated a competitive tender nor did it invite local manufacturers to participate in the planned importation. The institution willingly became a conduit and an enabler in this scam.”

Among the companies awarded the local purchase order are: Shehena Trading Commodity Limited, 100% owned by Invest Africa – FZCO, a company registered in a Dubai free zone. The Chief Executive Officer a Mr. Wilfred Saroni, is closely associated to the Trade & Investment Cabinet Secretary.

Another company is Multi Commerce FZC, a company registered in a Dubai free zone that is reportedly owned by a prominent businessman associated with a major new mall in Eastleigh.

Customs entry documents in our possession reveal that KNTC did not pay the following taxes: customs duty – 35%, import declaration fees – 3.5%, railway development levy and – 2.0%
agricultural food authority levy – 20%, resulting in a total tax loss of 42.5% .

Like KEMSA during the Covid-19 procurement scam, KNTC is now stuck with overpriced stock that it cannot sell.

Taxpayers will lose Ksh.6 billion if the state corporation losses and its objective of offering cheaper alternative products is hot air.

But the politically connected importers will smile all the way to their banks with a tidy profit of $41 million (Ksh.5.6 billion.

In the strongly worded statement, Azimio urged investigative agencies particularly the EACC and Directorate of Criminal Investigation to immediately swing into action and get to the bottom of this scam

“Individuals found to have enabled this scam must be surcharged and made to refund tax payers’ monies lost, and that should include Mr. Ruto,” says Azimio.

By citizen