GOVERNMENT URGED TO IMPOSE THE BAN ON POLITICAL MEETINGS CALLED TO SUBVERT THE OPERATIONS OF SONY SUGAR COMPANY

 
The government has been asked to ban all the politically motivated public meetings called for next week in Awendo town by local politicians to subvert and undermine the operations of the multi-billion shillings sugar company in the area.

A tentative meeting of cane farmers within Sony Sugar Company sugar cane growing zones has been called for next week on January 18th 2007. Its aims and objectives is to sensitize cane farmers to reject the recently inaugurated Board of Directors of the South Nyanza Sugar Company (SONY), we can authoritatively report

A cross section of interviewed farmers within Awendo town and its environs have expressed their vehement opposition to such meeting being held at this time when tension is high. They expressed fears that such meetings could cause a breach of peace and breed lawlessness.

Rumours making the round within Awendo town and its environs say that close to 200 rowdy youths have been bankrolled with 200/- each to cause mayhem during the meeting. The youths, according to a source are allied to a local wealthy politician. These youths have the instruction to heckle and shout down any leader with diverse opinion opposed to those of the local prominent politicians and even beat them up.

The youths, according to the rumours, have been instructed to shout at, heckle and even beat up some of the new aspirants for the Rongo Parliamentary seat. The unnamed politician is said to be under heavy pressure of losing his position following some serious, but unsubstantiated allegations that he was one of those notorious characters blamed for having run-down the financially strapped sugar firm.

The meeting, it is being alleged has been organized by a member of the Kenya Sugar Board (KSB) Sony Sugar zone Mr. Adero Omonge, who is said to be acting as a mere proxy of a prominent politician in the area.

It is called specifically to discuss the recent appointment of the new board of directors of Sony Sugar Company by the Minister for Agriculture Hon. Kipruto Arap Kirwa.

Kirwa, who last week performed the ceremony of the new board's inauguration had earlier last month appointed a Nairobi based businessman Mr. Herbert Ojwang' to the position of the board chairman. Ojwang' has a good rapport with the government and he is also a member of the board of directors of the Kenyatta National Hospital. His appointment is believed to have irked the ODM-K leaders in the region who had wished to see one of their loyalists landing the lucrative job. This has raised political temperature in the area.

"SONYSUGAR is a public investment company with the government as the majority shareholder and as such, it has the right and monopoly of naming anybody of its own choice to the board. Until such a time when the company would be fully privatized, the position remains the same and unchanged," said one influential farmer who prefer to maintain his anonymity.

But the farmers now want the local politicians, the MP included to give the new management a chance to turn the company from being financially strapped to profitability. They vowed not to turn up for any meeting called by local politicians.

The farmers have also dismissed the sentiment expressed last week by the National Treasurer of the Kenya Sugarcane Growers Association (KESGA) Mr. Owuor Kirwa who was widely quoted in a section of local dailies as having questioned the rationale of the recent appointment of board members and chairman.

Mr. Kirwa was further quoted as having said that some of the new appointees had no relevant experience to turn the multi-billion sugar company around. Kirew had also supported the suggestion that the sugar company directors should be elected directly by the farmers.

He was reported to have said that the farmers rejected the appointment of Raila Odinga's former personal assistant (PA) Mr. Hebert Ojwang' as the new company chairman, charging that the latter could be used by the government to run down the company.

Many farmers who wished not to be quoted said there is no logic in government appointing someone to run down its own investment for the purpose of vandalizing it. They dismissed the statement as misdirected, unwarranted and full of miscalculation and contain no logics therein it.

The majority of the farmers want local politicians to keep off the management and operations of Sony Sugar Company. They told director Adero Omonge to stop acting as the proxy of the Rongo MP Ochillo Ayacko. Any attempt to mobilize the cane farmers to reject the government appointment would be resisted and rejected in its totality", one farmer said at Ranen Market.

"Calling for farmers meeting with the agenda of undermining or rejecting the government appointment of new management at the facility would not augur well at this time. It could cause a breach of peace taking into account that the incumbent MP Ochillo Ayacko had recently moved to the High Court where he had filed legal suit against three leading personalities and aspirants in the Rongo parliamentary seat over the alleged defamation of characters" concurred one farmer Mr. Benard O. Ochieng'.

It would further jeopardize the cases filed in court against Dalmas Otieno, the KANU second National Vice Chairman and currently a front-runner in Rongo parliamentary contest, Mr. Jared Odhiambo Ng'ura, the National Chairman of KUSCO and also an aspirant and Mr. Ong'ondo Ng'ani a Nairobi businessman who had already declared his interest in the Rongo seat.

The MP had moved to court to seek legal redress, accusing the trio for having defamed him by imputing allegations that he had run down SONY Sugar Company. The matter is still pending before the courts.

The farmers have therefore appealed to the government through the Provincial Administration in Migori and the police to ensure that no politically motivated meeting to take place in Awendo for security reasons, be it for the farmers or for any other hidden agenda. Any meeting to discuss the operations and activities of SONY Sugar Company could be held next year after the general elections and not now, they argued.

The government has also been asked to clear Awendo town of idlers and political goons who are known for being manipulated by local politicians to cause chaos. It should remove from this small farming town all the characters of people with no proper fixed abode.

The farmers, however want Minister Kirwa to decisively tackle the alleged massive corruption and misappropriation of the resources of SONY Sugar Company by its unscrupulous and unpatriotic workers. They want the Minister to tackle inefficiency and to ensure that the right personnel who are qualified for the jobs are the only ones hired.

All agree that the company workers and staff who were recently mentioned in the sugar sales racket in which SONY Sugar Company lost millions of shillings should be arrested and charged before the courts of law. The company has been loosing millions of shillings through sales of its sugar products to ghost traders of no fixed abode.

A senior sales officials at the company recently resigned and left in huff after the former acting Managing Director Mr. Benard Otieno had launched a full scale investigation into the alleged massive theft. It was during this time when it was discovered that unknown thieves purchased sugar consignment worth millions of shillings using the purchasing orders and stolen bankers cheque leaves from a distributor. The sugar worth Kshs. 7.5 million in wholesale value later ended up in a warehouse in Nairobi's industrial area where it was disposed. The police are actively investigating the theft with the transporters as the lead in their investigations.

Some power brokers who are not licensed dealers, but who are said to be minting millions of shillings in huge profits after purchasing sugar worth even more than Kshs. 30 million at a go and sells it at the factory gates to the third parties for huge profits are the ones said to be promoting corruption. "These rackets must be stopped, even if it involved senior government officials or top judiciary officials," remarked one farmer.
ENDS

leooderaomolo@yahoo.com

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