Where is the alcohol? Puzzle of container with empty wine bottles at Mombasa port
Cargo containers at the Port of Mombasa in September last year. A container with empty wine bottles has been discovered at the port during a KRA verification exercise.
A 40-feet container imported with alcoholic beverages has been discovered with empty bottles during a verification exercise by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).
The container is among 104 others containing assorted expired goods lined up for destruction at the Port of Mombasa after importers failed to pay duty on time.
Other goods are tonnes of foodstuff including wheat, rice, milk and juices, which have been stored from between 2008 to 2021. In a gazette notice, the authority said that the container with wines had arrived in the country on July 29, 2009.
“Only empty bottles and papers found,” the notice signed by KRA Port Operations Chief Manager Kilindini, Lucy Ng’ang’a, states.
The gazette notice reveals that the container is among several others whose vital documents, such as manifest number, agents’ names and addresses could not be traced.
Questions have remained unanswered on how the container was opened and contents vanished within a custom bonded warehouse at G-section Kilindini where it has been lying for the past 14 years.
An independent search by the Nation revealed that the container was carrying 1,984 cartons of assorted wine when it arrived in the country on a ship christened M-Alabama in 2009.
The goods were later on listed for auction by the customs department in 2010. At that time, Galatea Alimentari Ltd, whose address is in Watamu, Malindi, was named as the consignee.
In previous years, a number of port agents have been accused of colluding with importers to sneak out goods from the Port of Mombasa, leading to the introduction of modern scanners, which have significantly reduced such cases.
In 2018, former Directorate of Criminal Investigations, George Kinoti, revealed that KRA had lost Sh100 billion ($1 million) in a period of just six months to irregularities at the port, leading to the arrest and prosecution of 30 KRA officials over the import of contraband.
Every year, KRA destroys tonnes of expired goods, some seized at Mombasa’s port, in an effort to relieve congestion at the various container freight stations.
Other goods planned for destruction include brown sugar, dry cell batteries, vegetable oil among other products.
