Le sucre à travers le monde →
Copyright © 2006 - 2009 Sucre Ethique
Site réalisé avec SPIP par
A. LE FLOCH
Nairobi — The Capital Markets Authority will investigate the allegations of malpractice in the country’s largest sugar miller, Mumias Sugar Company, a House committee has heard.
Nairobi — The Capital Markets Authority will investigate the allegations of malpractice in the country’s largest sugar miller, Mumias Sugar Company, a House committee has heard.
The decision was arrived at when the authority, led by its chief executive Stella Kilonzo, met Parliament’s Agriculture committee to address farmers’ complaints. The farmers in the Mumias sugarbelt have cried foul saying that the miller was fleecing them of their cane proceeds.
Speaking to the Nation after the meeting, Agriculture committee chairman John Mututho (Naivasha, Kanu) and vice chairman Lucas Chepkitony (Keiyo North, ODM) said the committee asked the CMA to furnish it with all correspondence between the authority and the miller.
"We want to scrutinise the details of the disclosure the miller has made to the authority, because farmers are complaining that the miller deducted money from them, yet they didn’t get the shares," said Mr Mututho.
The House committee wants the miller delisted from the Nairobi Stock Exchange for what it terms as the unfair treatment on the local farmers, many of whom are also shareholders of the sugar firm.
According to the Agriculture committee, the allegations against the miller are grave, yet the miller declined to appear before it.
The CMA has seven days to present the House committee with its dealings with Mumias Sugar after which the committee will scrutinise and make its recommendation.
Table report
Mr Mututho said the House team planned to table the report in Parliament as soon as it re-opens on June 8.
Some of the complaints against Mumias Sugar is the failure by the factory to show the locals how it spends the infrastructure development money given to it by the Kenya Sugar Board.
The massive spillage of cane as it is transported from the farm to the factory, high cost of fertiliser and the failure by farmers to access the weighbridge at the factory, despite the Sugar Act directing that the cane be weighed at the farm gate are some of the complaints.
The 15 per cent penalty (formerly 30 per cent) charged on burnt cane and the delayed harvesting of the cane is also among the farmers’ complaints being probed by the committee.
Mumias Sugar was listed in the Nairobi Stock Exchange in 2001 in an initial public offering.
It is not clear how farmers will raise the money to buy back the company given that, during privatisation, the public was invited to buy shares in the sugar company, regardless of whether they were locals or not.
Also, as the company grew and more shares issued out, some of the farmers were on the forefront of selling their shares to non-farmers in the hope of making a quick buck.