Wandayi calls for reinstatement of sugar factory managers in Nyanza, Western

Kisumu Friday, June 2, 2023

KNA by Chris Mahandara

The National Assembly Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi has threatened to call for mass action over the government’s move to replace the management of sugar factories in Nyanza and Western sugar belt.

Wandayi said the move was a ploy by cartels in government to take over the firms.

This, he said, was a well-choreographed plan to use the state owned mills to import and package cheap sugar for sale into the local market.

The end result, he added, was to kill the factories and take over their assets worth billions of shillings at the expense of thousands of farmers who directly depend on the crop.

“We know the sugar barons who are now in top leadership of the country. We know their game plan. They want to take over our factories, use them to package imported sugar and then leave the factories dead. That is what they did with Mumias Sugar,” he said.

Addressing the media in Kisumu on Friday, Wandayi said the changes were sinister since the new appointees had questionable credentials and were from one community.

Muhoroni and Miwani sugar factories in Kisumu County, he said, were the latest targets with the appointment of receiver manager Francis Ooko revoked.

“Within a very short span of time, Chemelil Sugar Company, Nzoia Sugar and Muhoroni sugar are now under new CEOs from one ethnic community,” he said.

“In the case of Miwani and Muhoroni, the Receiver-Manager who was appointed via Gazette Notice No.5473 has been sacked without his earlier appointment being de-gazetted,” he added.

The dismissal, he said, was as a result of his relentless opposition to an attempted take-over of Miwani Sugar Factory land by a company associated with sugar barons working in cahoots with government officials.

“As leaders from the sugar belts of our country, we refuse to be subjugated. We refuse to see our livelihoods go for a song. The Kenya Kwanza regime cannot steal our electoral victory and then steal our livelihoods,” he said.

He asked for the immediate and unconditional reinstatement of the Muhoroni and Miwani Receiver Manager threatening to call for mass action if the issue is not resolved.

“If Kenya Kwanza wants to know our resolve to protect the livelihoods of our people, Miwani and Muhoroni are going to be the first litmus test. If the Receiver-Manager is not reinstated, nobody must cheat himself that he will take over and run those factories with a view to killing them,” he said.

The cartels, he added, have infiltrated the fishing and mining sectors in the region saying the move shall be met with a lot of resistance.

Courtesy ; K. N. A