Kenya seizes explosive materials at border with Tanzania

THE Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) said on Thursday that it foiled attempts by suspicious people to smuggle into the country with dangerous fertilizer that can be used to make explosive materials.KRA Head of Marketing and Communications Kennedy Onyonyi said its revenue officers at the Namanga border with Tanzania on Wednesday seized 20 bags of potassium nitrate crystalline and 20 bags of sodium benzoate after a raid at a go-down.“KRA officers in Namanga on July 11 raided a go-down in the no man’s land on the Kenya side of the border and seized 20 bags of potassium nitrate crystalline and 20 bags of sodium benzoate after suspicious people attempted to bribe the officers to allow the consignment into the country using public transport,” Onyonyi said.He said two people approached a KRA officer and offered to negotiate to bring in some goods in a bus with the aim of influencing the officer not to verify the nature of the goods.“The officer brought the matter to the attention of his superior upon which, the suspects fled,” Onyonyi said in a statement released in Nairobi.Potassium nitrate is a white crystalline substance used in the manufacture of fireworks, matches, gunpowder and agricultural fertilizer among others.