Police officers in Emali are holding a driver of a lorry who was intercepted while transporting ethanol worth Sh14 million.
Rift Valley Regional Coordinator Maalim Mohamed said police officers on patrol intercepted the vehicle along the Emali- Loitoktok road on Friday.
He said that the vehicle with concealed registration number was heading towards Loitoktok. It was intercepted before it could join Mombasa- Nairobi highway.
Mr Mohamed said the officers opened the container and established that it was ferrying ethanol packed in 115 drums of 250 litres each.
The official said the driver of the vehicle had covered the drums containing the ethanol with animal feed. The administrator said the suspect was using the animal feed to conceal the pungent smell of ethanol.
“We suspect the ethanol might have been sourced from outside the country according to the stickers on the drums,” said Mr Mohamed.
“We are working with a multi-agency in line with the directive of President William Ruto to firmly deal with counterfeit and substandard products in the country,” he said.
The regional boss said that the vehicle was towed to Loitoktok. The police have begun investigations to establish the source and destination of the ethanol.
He revealed that a roadblock will be erected along the Emali-Loitoktok road and will be manned by a multi-agency security team to monitor all the trucks plying the busy route.
“The driver tried to bribe our officers. We expect him to tell us where his accomplices are,” said Mr Mohamed.
He commended the multi-agency security team and patriotic members of the public for tipping the security team on the suspicious cargo.
“We shall not allow unscrupulous people creating unfair competition and evading taxes to continue doing such shady deals,” said Mr Mohamed.
The official revealed that the border patrol management unit will remain vigilant during this festive season.
“We have porous international borders in Rift Valley as we border South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania and Kenyans of goodwill should ensure our borders are secure by alerting security teams whenever they see suspect cargo or trucks crossing our borders,” he said.
Two weeks ago, the multi-agency team intercepted counterfeit products in Kericho County worth over Sh10 million.
