When Billionaire Narendra Raval of Devki Steels wanted to lease Mumias Sugar Company his efforts were thwarted by some Western leaders led by Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala on the grounds that the deal was not above board.
Last week Malala was heard saying at a funeral that he objected efforts by Devki to lease the troubled miller so as to have a fair process where all stakeholders together with the members of the public would witness the exercise for transparency purposes.
Malala went ahead to hint that the lease would be awarded to the highest bidder from the eight bidders but forgot to mention if other factors shall be considered before one is declared a winner.
When the bids were opened last week, it emerged out that a US based company Tumaz and Tumaz Enterprise had topped the list.
Tumaz which is associated with Julius Mwale the man behind Mwale Medical and TecnoCity, had quoted Ksh26.7 billion with the other top three quoting slightly over Ksh10billion with Jaswant Rai quoting Ksh8.5 billion while Raval quoted Ksh 3.5 billion.
One thing that is playing out clearly is the fact that there are efforts by Malala to see that Raval is not awarded the lease. These follows claims that Rai was using Malala to either scattle the process or influence the bidding process to his favour something that we are yet to see.
In as much as Rai has all the rights just like any other investor to lease MSC, we must not stop asking ourselves very fundamental questions.
Rai alone has three sugar factories in Kenya namely Sukari, West Kenya and Olepito including Kinyara Sugar in Uganda among others. If he acquires MSC then he would control the entire market something that we should be worried about as it would be very dangerous given the fact he has hit the headlines in the recent past where he was accused of illegal importation of cheap sugar some of which was nabbed in his warehouses.
The Sugar Directorate data shows that he controls 45 % of total sales with West Kenya at 29%, Sukari 11% and Olepito 2% then with all these factors your guess would be as good as mine.
The appointed Reciever manager for MSC Mr. Ramana Rao had been quoted earlier as saying that he was not only looking for an investor with deep pockets but one who who is serious to make MSC revival a reality hence considering other perimeters.
Rao was of the opinion that a private treaty was as much better option instead of a Public tendering. In addition he said the private treaty would be less expensive and much faster and the receiver to conclude the technical and fanancial assessment of the bidders in the shortest period.
Initially Devki Group boss was planning to inject Ksh5 billion to revive the once Giant miller.
Some residents of Kakamega have questioned the ability of Mwale to revive MSC wondering how he will manage yet he is unable to pay his own suppliers some of whom they said have taken him to Court over debts accumulating to hundreds of millions of shillings.
Therefore, we should not allow a repeat of what happened to a once paper Giant Panpaper Mills in Webuye which even after being officially opened by President Uhuru Kenyatta it is now being used as a warehouse to store cheap illegal sugar.
What we should all be asking ourselves is whether Rao shall stand his ground and revive MSC by picking the right person or he will bow to the pressure from the cartels or their handlers and give it to someone who will send it to the graves once and for all.
