Customs officials in Kenya have reportedly issued a deadline for importers in the country to clear a number of unclaimed items.
Local media reports monitored by African Entertainment indicated that the items include sex toys, civilian drones and shisha pipes.
Reports say the items have “clogged” warehouses at the main airport in the capital, Nairobi.
As a result, customs authorities, according to one report African Entertainment monitored in the Daily Nation, have threatened to auction or destroy the items if the importers of the unclaimed items fail to pay the relevant fees by the 30th of September 2021.
up to the end of the month to pay relevant fees or risk them being auctioned or destroyed, local Business Daily news site reports.
Business Daily news site in a separate report quoted Lilian Nyawanda, Commissioner for Customs and Border Control at the Kenya Revenue Authority, as saying “Most passengers are unknowledgeable or uninformed on prohibitions of goods such as shisha and sex toys and restrictions imposed on goods such as drones and firearms.”
Shisha pipes, sex toys, drones clog JKIA customs store https://t.co/58SIX2AHlR pic.twitter.com/kGGhpb9sAd
— Nation Africa (@NationAfrica) September 1, 2021
According to Ms. Nyawanda, “The warehouse has very limited capacity owing to the slow rate at which permits are issued for restricted items such as drones or frequency at which destructions are conducted for prohibited imports.”