By Spy Uganda
After seizing multimillion fake gold bars from Uganda yesterday, Kenyan Police have intensified the war on contraband along the Northern Corridor and seized 29,000 litres of ethanol alleged to have also been smuggled from Uganda.
Northern Corridor highway patrol police commander Joshua Nyasimi said the ethanol was nabbed along Chwele-Kamukuywa road in a lorry from Uganda.
Nyasimi said police received a tip-off from members of the public that the vehicle had diverted from the main highway and was trying go avoid passing through the Webuye weighbridge before they laid an ambush.
“We intercepted the vehicle and found it was carrying ethanol that is suspected to have passed the border under unclear circumstances with documents showing it was headed to Ethiopia in a town called Oromo,” he said.
Webuye West subcounty police commander William Sadiq said a security team and officials from the Kenya Revenue Authority seized the lorry that had tried to evade the Webuye weighbridge with fake clearance from Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) officials at the Malaba border.
The driver of the lorry was nabbed and is in police custody. Sadiq said the suspect will be arraigned to face charges of evading tax and forgery of KRA documents.
“The driver was found with fake documents showing that he had been cleared by KRA,” he said.
He said the government was to lose millions of shillings in taxes. Nyasimi said last week they intercepted another lorry with 2,8840 litres of contraband ethanol at Webuye.
It was being smuggled from Uganda. “We have intensified patrols and tightened security along the Northern Corridor highway to ensure no counterfeit goods enter the country,” he said.
