This archive report was first published on 18 June 2021.
OMTATAH WANTS COURT TO FREEZE BIDS FOR MUMIAS SUGAR REVIVAL ¶
June 18, 2021
Activist Okiya Omtatah has moved to court to temporarily suspend a directive by the Senate to Mumias Sugar Company receiver manager Ponangipalli Venkata Ramana Rao, citing concerns over a secretive bidding process.
According to Omtatah, the Senate's Agriculture Committee directed Rao to re-advertise the bid to salvage the troubled Mumias Sugar Company on June 9, 2021. However, Omtatah claims that Rao had already engaged in a secretive bidding process, inviting eight investors, including Catalysis Group of Russia, Sarrai Group of Uganda, and Kibos Sugar and Devki Group from Kenya.
Omtatah alleges that none of the eight bidders had the capacity to revive the company, leading to fears that a plan was underway to dispose of the company to Rao's cronies for a song.
He also claims that Rao has mismanaged the ethanol operations and shut them down in March 2021, halting all manufacturing operations at the company. Additionally, Rao allegedly ploughed 677 hectares of the Nucleus Estate but failed to plant sugarcane on some 307 HA, letting the effort go to waste.
Omtatah is aggrieved that Rao has not published a general statement of affairs on the assets and liabilities of the company as at the time he took over and made known the efforts he has taken to protect the assets of the company and the interests of investors, creditors, and other parties.
He reiterates that he is aggrieved that the receiver manager has been on site for close to two years with nothing positive to show for it. Omtatah also points out that the neglected assets, especially the nucleus estate which has been left to grow wild, pose a danger to the public.
