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Nairobi — For two decades, Kisumu Town residents have waited for the day collapsed industries would be revived and jobs become available.
Nairobi — For two decades, Kisumu Town residents have waited for the day collapsed industries would be revived and jobs become available.
They have done all within their power, but anything they lay their hands on fails.
Driven to desperation, leaders have now ganged up and are threatening to take the law in their hands and repossess the land the collapsed firms occupy.
Mr Hesbon Onyuro, a sugarcane farmer in Miwani, for instance, says the waiting game is too much and the residents can no longer bear it as more firms continue folding up.
In a span of 20 years, factories that provided thousands of jobs to residents have either closed or have been placed under receivership. Kisumu Cotton Mills (Kicomi) quickly comes to mind, with its unwelcoming sight of rusty structures that exemplify the sorry state of the economy of the country’s third largest town.
Kicomi’s collapse was primarily blamed on the negative effects of the structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) popularised by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund that eliminated price controls leading to unregulated liberalisation of Kenya’s cotton sub-sector.
It was placed under receivership with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as the receiver managers. The receiver sold it to an Asian entrepreneur, Rumi Singh, for an undisclosed fee in 1993.
Mr Singh confirmed that the mill was still down because of competition from cheap imported textile.
"All the textile mills are closing down across the country because of dumped products. How do we survive ?" he asked.
In 1993, Kenya Breweries followed suit with the management citing poor business returns.
In the period following its closure, it functioned for some time as a depot for the brewer, serving the western region.
Now, it has been turned into a depot for a local dairy firm.
Other industries that have followed the same route include the Kenya Matches, Swan Industries, Miwani Sugar Factory, Kisumu Fishnet, Toworo Industries and several medium size industries. Some, like Muhoroni Sugar Company, have scaled down operations.
New corporate identity
Kenya Matches has been acquired by a group of Asian entrepreneurs who have since changed its name to Phoenix Matches. It laid off more than 150 casual workers in October last year.
Swan Industries was placed under receivership early this year by Investment and Mortgage Bank (I&M Bank) over a loan in excess of Sh200 million.
I&M appointed VSC Consultants to manage the confectionery factory. A former director of Swan Industries, Mr Sailesh Shah, also confirmed that the company was acquiring a new corporate identity.
The closure of these companies condemned hundreds of workers to joblessness. Even when the residents thought the confetti was already coming down with the formation of the Grand Coalition Government this was never to be and they are now wondering whether the wait will ever end.
However, the realisation that the collapsed industries would never get back any time soon has now sparked the demands for the repossession of parcels of land occupied by collapsed firms.
And the efforts are quickly gathering momentum with two local MPs directing the municipal council to repossess the land.
Kisumu Town West MP John Olago Aluoch fired the first salvo when he asked the council to repossess the land occupied by KBL. "The lease was given on condition that the land is used for industrial production, but the companies have breached the agreement," he told the workers attending the celebrations.
And his Kisumu Town East colleague Shakeel Shabir was more emphatic, insisting that the land must revert to the council.
"The land is the council’s, and it must take it back because it has not been put into correct use," said Mr Shabir.
Up in arms
In Miwani, sugar farmers are also up in arms demanding that the more than 10,000 hectares of nucleus estate revert to the original owners if the mill cannot be revived.
The farmers, Mr Onyuro and Kenya Sugarcane Growers Association chairman Samuel Anyango said, had given up hopes of revival of the mill, what with the unending court battles over its ownership.
"We the farmers in this zone shall do everything to ensure that this factory reverts to the actual owners so that we can eradicate poverty in this region," the farmers wrote in a letter to Agriculture minister William Ruto.
Kisumu mayor Sam Okello, who was among the guests on Labour Day when Mr Olago first brought up the issue, confirmed that the council’s legal team was on the ground reviewing the lease agreements.
The mayor said he would be calling a full council meeting in due course to discuss the recommendations from the legal team.