Warehouses at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport are jammed up with large consignments of restricted items.

The restricted items that mostly include sex toys, drones, shisha pipes and other restricted items lie uncollected in warehouses because importers delay collecting them.

In most cases, the importers are caught unaware of the country’s stringent permit conditions before some items are allowed into the market.

According to the Commissioner for Customs and Border Control at the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Lilian Nyawanda, most passengers are oblivious to the country’s restrictions.

“Most passengers are unknowledgeable or un-informed on prohibitions of goods such as shisha and sex toys and restrictions imposed on goods such as drones and firearms,” she said.

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Nyawanda also said that the warehouses at JKIA have limited capacity because of delays in issuing permits for the restricted items or destruction.

“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,” added Nyawanda.

KRA is getting concerned about the influx of the restricted items at the customs warehouses.

Due to the limited capacity of the warehouses, KRA has issued a notice to importers to clear the items before the September 30, 2021 failure to which the items will either be auctioned or destroyed.