Plot to dissolve Nzoia Sugar board – Weekly Citizen

Only a month after a new managing director was named to head the Nzoia Sugar, top political leadership in Bungoma are now said to be canvassing to have the board of directors dissolved.

Wycliffe Wangamati

Bungoma governor Wycliffe Wangamati and Kanduyi MP Wafula Wamunyinyi have said the board under the chairmanship of former Webuye MP Joash Wamangoli, was to blame for cash crisis at the company for failing to come up with policies that would help turn it around.
Already, those behind the dissolution of the board plan to collect signatures from farmers and other stakeholders to further their interests. They claim that corruption and manipulation of tenders and unnecessary meetings are being held.
Weekly Citizen has information to the effect that per month, the board sits three times and a total of Sh5 million is used in allowances and entertainment.

Wamunyinyi

They demanded that the MD should also be given a new board so as to come up with new ideas that could help reform the ailing parastatal for the benefit of the farmers.
The government named Michael Makokha, an accountant as the new MD, taking over from the late Michael Kulundu who was also acting in the same position after Godfrey Wanyonyi was arrested and charged with corruption.

“After failing to pay farmers and now the workers’ salaries the board ought to have honourably resigned. Because they have opted to hang on, they should be disbanded,” Wamunyinyi said.
The lawmaker threatened to storm the company premises and eject the directors if the government does not heed to their demands.
He said despite the cash flow problems, the chairman is allegedly holding frequent meetings both at Nzoia and in Nairobi to pocket allowances as the farmers and workers go hungry.
Wanyonyi said the local elected leaders would also not allow a local investor to be sneaked in to manage the company without following the laid down procedures and excluding the land on which it stands and around the community.
Contacted for comment a fuming Wamangoli said the MP had been against him since his appointment for reasons best known to him. “The MP is my relative and a member of my Bakimweyi clan but he continues pleading with the government to fire me. He is my son but he doesn’t respect me,” he said
The chairman challenged the MP to tell Kenyans how he had run down the company, instead of issuing sweeping statements.
He added that as an elected leader Wamunyinyi should have known that the problems in the sugar industry are global and parliament is also charged with the responsibility of coming up with lasting solutions.
Sources say a section on the board plotted the Kulundu’s death after he opposed plan to import sugar and suspicious payments that sidelined farmers.
Apart from Wamangoli who boasts to be close to deputy president William Ruto, others on the board are Karen Kandie, Tom Ipomayi, Stephen Kisaka, Mary Makokha, Patrick Musumba, Alice Wanja, Anne Omotho, Hilary Chagwo, Zachayo Magara, Richard Njomba and Stephen Ikikii.
For the directors to mint money, they organise many unending meetings all in the name of reviving the sugar firm said to be on its death bed.