Investment, Trade and Industry Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria now says he has given the green light for the importation of bar soaps.
In a thinly-veiled statement posted to social networking site Twitter on Saturday, Kuria said the move is aimed at protecting consumers.
This, he added, comes after what he termed as the “edible oils mafia” hiked the price of bar soaps.
“In their misguided efforts to frustrate government efforts to streamline the edible oils industry, the edible oils Mafia have now hiked the price of bar soaps, a critical by product in the value chain by about 45%. To mitigate this mischief I have authorised the importation of bar soaps in order to protect the consumers,” he tweeted.
In their misguided efforts to frustrate government efforts to streamline the edible oils industry, the edible oils Mafia have now hiked the price of bar soaps, a critical by product in the value chain by about 45%. To mitigate this mischief I have authorised the importation of…
— CS Moses Kuria (@HonMoses_Kuria) July 15, 2023
This comes as the latest in a slew of controversial statements Kuria has made on Twitter in the recent past, most of which have more often than not always attracted the ire of Kenyans online.
The last came in the aftermath of anti-government demonstrations on Wednesday when he tweeted that the government would throw out all squatters from the East Africa Portland Cement Company land in Athi River, Machakos County.
He attributed the vandalism on the Nairobi Expressway’s Mlolongo toll station during the protests to the move by the government to evict illegal tenants from the company’s land.