NEW SYSTEM OF GRAFT HAS EMERGED AT THE AWENDO BASED SONYSUGAR WHERE POLITICIANS ARE SAID TO BE MINTING MILLIONS THROUGH THE SALES RACKETS.
Reports Leo Odera Omolo In Awendo Town.
Fresh complaints have emerged linking local politicians to the sales of processed sugar racket, of which traders within Awendo and its environment have raised complaints, saying the racket by middle-men has contributed immensely to the skyrocketing prices of the commodity within the locality making it unaffordable by consumers and retailers alike.
Complaints have been raised that phantom racketeers, operating as the sales broker and middle-men at the company warehouse and marketing and sales department, make it inaccessible to the local traders.
These middlemen have resumed the monopoly of selling SONYSUGAR manufactured products, making the commodity unaffordable by the locals.
Sugar price is now selling at around 250/- per kg or even 300/- and yet it is being manufactured next door,but the ordinary poor rural folks cannot afford it anymore.
Huge bulks of refined sugar are sold to the broker / racketeers telephone traders at the factory prices who then contact wholesalers from Kisii, . Kericho.Kisumu, Rongo, Homa-Bay and other big towns located with the greater Southern Nyanza regions.
These are the same people who are in turn selling the commodity to local retailers at a very exorbitant prices and the retailers in turn hikes the price threefold making sugar one of the most expensive commodities in the region.
Those allegedly involved in this kind of new graft and rackets are local politicians including former MPS. They are said to be permanently stationed at the Awendo-based company’s warehouse and marketing department offices waiting for the “Big Kill”
Big orders from wholesalers and big stores in towns must pass through them. Each kilogram of bulk sales of refined sugar must come through them. They are paying nothing to the company except their names. The payment is made directly to the miller, but they earn huge cut off sums of money on each kg sold through their names..
These racketeers and unscrupulous phantom traders run no known business premises, paying no taxes to the Kenya Revenue Authority, though they earn huge profits through sale percentages and are not even genuinely registered and licensed for that matter. They always gets away scout-free with the loot and their ill-gotten money.
An insider told this writer that the business is really booming to an extent that one of the racketeers is said to have become a millionaire over night. This kind of racket was booming around SONYSUGAR about eight years ago and had led the company to the verge of total collapse. It was, however, stopped when the government intervened by sending the top management team at the SONYSUGAR packing.
But those who knew the tricks before are back in business in a big way. And some of the unpatriotic managers and staff are also said o be involved in the racket.
The sweat-talking racketeers are the same politicians who go around defending Sonysugar to the hilt during the numerous funeral gatherings in the nearby villages, which are located within the company sugar growing zones. They never miss even the funeral of a small child, and have their ears readily open for any death announcements via local FM radio stations because such gatherings offer them an opportunity to defend the company against any complaints either by farmers of business community for the purpose f earning favor from the management so that they can continue racking huge profits from sugar sales brokerage.
The company level main managing director, Paul Odolla, could not b reached to verify these claims and complaints from local communities and traders. Phone calls placed on his mobile phone line went unanswered.
However, tension is building around Awendo town and its environs with traders up in arms demanding for the immediate kicking out of he sales middle-men and brokers at the facility. They want SONYSUGAR to sell its products directly to genuine dealers and licensed wholesalers and not through the racket of sales brokers, The scheme, they say is hurting the consumers mostly because they cannot afford a kilo of sugar which is manufactured and produced at their door step because of the interests of a few individual racketeers.
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