Busines News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo In Awendo Town

The abrupt resignation of the former chairman of the Awendo based Sony Sugar Company has opened a can of warm in revealing a number of scandals which have been going on behind the scene at the government owned facility.

It came to the notice of the general public and the Sugar cane farming fraternity that there has been grave political interferences in the day to day management of the Awendo based facility leading to its inability to operate independently and efficiently.

A cartel of certain group of wheeler-dealers with connection s in high places are blamed. The tribulation at the Sony Sugar is said to have started immediately after the December 2007 general elections.

In the election the former Rongo MP George Mbogoh Ochillo-Ayacko lost the seat to parliamentary seat to Dalmas Otieno who had also at one time served as the first MP for Rongo when the seat was created in the late 1990s.The latter is now a cabinet Minister in the grand coalition government. He is the Minister for Public Service in the Office of the President.

Soon after being appointed to the cabinet Otieno, it is being alleged had embarked on a grand scheme to print his influence in the day-to-day running and management of the Sony Sugar.

With unexpected exit of Mr. Ojwang’ the farmers have now appealed to the Minister for Agriculture William Ruto to pick a new chairman from a neutral area outside, arguing that replacing Ojuwang”s with a man from within the locality would only bread malice{Fitinas} but not serve to improve the company’s production capacity.

It has come to our notice that a political surrogate of the Public Service Minister Dalmas Otieno has been pestering the management and the board with unclear offer of an overseas bank said to be willing to finance the factory expansion project at unspecified colossal amount of money and that some of its Kenyan collaborators stand to harvest million of shillings as part of the “kick back” from the deal and that the under table amount money would be deposited in the wheeler dealer’s overseas bank accounts.

The deal has been negotiated and concluded and was only awaiting for the signing of the agreement when the deal aborted after another interested group of powerful politicians within the ODM had telephoned the overseas financiers and told them to hold on the deal until further notice.This is believed to have saved Sony millions of shillings, which could have been siphoned.

It was just a matter of conflict of interests and it came at a time when the wheeler dealer had already flew out and went to overseas for the signing of the agreement ceremony. The alleged overseas Financing company is said to be nursing a long term interests in acquiring the wholly government owned Sony Sugar Company at a later date when the government facts its shares for privatization.

Sugar cane farmers in Awendo and its environs have now appealed to the Prime Minister Raila Amolo Odinga to come to their rescue by restraining politicians from interfering with the company operations. Sony Sugar serves six administrative district in both Nyanza and Rift Valley Provinces. It has contracted close to 25,000 sugar cane farmers in Rongo, Migori, Trans-Mara, Gucha and Homa-Bay districts. It is also serving almost equal number of non-contracted farmers within the six administrative districts and as such needs to be protected at all costs.

The farmers want The Prime Minister specifically to restrain his cabinet colleague Dalmas Otieno to de link himself from the operations of Sony Sugar which is an important economic source for thousands of people in greater Southern Nyanza.r

Matter changed for the worse when Dalmas Otieno won the Rongo seat in December 2007. The Minister who is allegedly to be heavily indebted even owed Sony Sugar an outstanding debt amounting to Kshs. 870,000 for the services rendered to him for some years now The company had even delivered waters at hist Kangeso home in central Kamagambo location, Rongo Division. And even ,very recently when the legislator lost his son. But he has flatly refused to clear the outstanding debts some of which are said to have remained unsettled for more than 5 years.

Impeccable sources in Awendo have confided to this writer that the questions of unsettled debts are some of the sources of discontent leading to bad blood between the Minister and the chairman of the board of directors of Sony Sugar, which led to MR. Ojwang’,s resignation in huff.

Relations between the Minister and the former chairman of Sony Sugar Mr. Herbert Ojwang’s it is further being alleged came when the Rongo legislator had asked the company to bend the procedural law to award the tender for scrap metals exclusively to a company in which the Minister’s wife had business interest.

But Mr. Ojwang is understood to have stood his ground , arguing that the request was contrary to the laid down procurement procedure

The former chairman tendered his resignation on Monday citing frustration and political interferences, but decline to name the4 source of such interferences. He, however, termed as gross political interference in the management of the company as ther cause of his departure.

Ojwang’s, however appeared to have won the heart of thousands of farmers due to hismanagerial skills and good public relations, which has resulted in the hirtheto financially strapped turned around. Other allegations against the Minister were that he wanted Sony management to appoint his political cronies and surrogates as the head of the various departments without following the regulations and in total disregard of their academic qualifications.

Minister Otieno it is also being alleged has been fronting for the appointment of a Mr. Charles Ogalo as the new chairman of the SONY Sugar board of directors. Mr.Ogalo hails from his central Kamagambo home. And the man is already doing business with Sony Sugar via an organization which is known as “Genetic” a financial mobilization organization for the workers pension etc..

The said Ogalo it is being alleged to be in partnership with one Victor Kidiwa of the The Finance Development of Kenya ,which is also said in the process of offering part of its shares for sale to an overseas finance company, which is said to be interested in financing the expansion of Sony Sugar.

Last week the Sony Sugar company Public Relations manager Mr.Wilson Okong,o earned his suspension indefinitely on unspecified allegations of peddling rumours among workers. The reason of Mr.Okongo’s suspension is rather sketchy as there was no reliable source ready to reveal the facts about it.

Okong’o who used to be a primary school teacher at the Sony Sugar Company prior to his appointment was also served as a stringer for a number of media houses in the area as such had no proper CV for the coveted company’s top spokesman’s jobn, which entails heavy responsibility involvedin the PR’s job.

The war of attrition between Minister Dalmas Otieno and the former Sony Sugar Chairman is said to have resulted in recent heated exchange of harsh words a week ago after the two had attended the home coming party for the Uriri MP Ojwang Omolo at Rapogi.

It was reported that during his address to the gathering the Minister in full view of the hundreds of cane farmers had scathingly criticized the board of Sony Sugar for not serving the farmers interest effectively and efficiently and that it should be disbanded.

The remarks did not go down well with Mr.Ojwang’ who was present at the ceremony and who might have felt his board had done a lot for the farmers, workers and the community, but was now being vilified and humiliated in public.

It could be remembered thatr In July, 2006 before Mr. Ojwang’’s appointement to the sony Sugar, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture Dr Romano Kiome is said to had written a letter appointing Dalmas Otieno in the same position, but the appointment was later rescinded for some unknown reasons.

Another burning issue in Sony Sugar is the alleged insistence by Dalmas Otieno that a company called Kinda Group should be in partnership with Sony Sugar by way of providing tractors for the transportation. But what is rather strange, is that the Kinda Group wanted the Sony Sugar to be their guarantees for the finances. This sounded irregular and unprocedural.

All the companies involved in the transportation of row cane from the field to the Awendo based factory are in partnership with Sony Sugar. But these company’s or individual must source their own finances from the lending commercial banks and other financial institutions without involving Sony Sugar in such deals.

A source says, the Kinda Group idea of working in partnership came only after the recently concluded Nyanza Economic Forum, which was held in Kisumu. But the group appear to be having no proper financial arrangement, but is banking on Sony Sugar to stand as their guarantees. But farmers have vehemently objected to this idea. They are insisting that Sony should secure finances for the purchasing tractors from either the Kenya Sugar Board, AFC or the government.

Sugar cane now says their fate hangs in the hands of the Prime Minister as the only person who can free them from the bondage of gross political interference in the management of Sony Sugar, which to them is the source of their livelihood and a sacred cows. The company, they said must be free from political machinations and maneuvering by politically connected cartel of business mogul who are out for quick kills.

ENDS
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com

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Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2008 03:22:14 -0700 (PDT)
From: Leo Odera Omolo
Subject: CHAIRMAN RESIGNATION SPARK OFF MASSIVE SCANDALS AT SONY SUGAR.