Mumias sugar legal battle escalates as three firms want to be enjoined in the lease
Three more companies now want to be enjoined in the Mumias Sugar lease legal battle.
West Kenya Sugar Limited has asked the court to enjoin it in the case claiming to have been the highest bidder.
The sugarcane farmers are challenging leasing of Mumias Sugar Company asking the court to enjoin it as the sixth plaintiff in the case which has also attracted Mumias Outgrowers Company (Moco).
“The intended sixth plaintiff seeking to be enjoined in these proceedings had in mind to save court’s time. The complaints it has are similar are identical to those in the proceedings. West Kenya was the highest bidder at Sh36 billion compared to Sarrai Group that bid at under Sh6 billion, a difference of 30.2 billion, which when we get enjoined, we will get an explanation from receiver-manager and Kenya Commercial Bank,” the farmers said through lawyer Paul Muite.
The firm argued that it is aggrieved that Ugandan miller, Sarrai Group, clinched the lucrative deal even after offering the lowest bid.
It stated that a reply by Mumias receiver-manager Ponangipalli Ramana Rao said it was knocked out of the race to avoid monopoly.
According to Rao, West Kenya would have controlled 41 per cent of Kenya’s sugar industry if it was offered the lease.
However, lawyer James Orengo for Kakamega county has opposed the application by Muite, saying the court should determine with hearing their application and not any applications for joinder.
“Under the circumstances in which the orders were given on January 14, it’s important that the application is heard first,” he said.
Lawyer Mungai Kibe, representing the petitioners, has told court that Sarrai and Mumias Sugar have disobeyed court orders that ordered them to stop any works at the sugar mill related to the lease.
Kibe said they have evidence which they will show that Sarrai is still ongoing with the works.
However, Kibe said they needed time to respond to the responses that will be filed by the defendants.
At the same time, Mumias Outgrowers Company Ltd and Tumaz Tumazwants to be enjoined as a party in the case.
The suit was filed by five farmers who are Lambert Lwanga Ogochi, Augustino Ochacha Saba, Prisca Okwanko Ochacha, Robert Mudinyu Magero and Wycliffe Barasa Ng’onga
On the other hand, another group of farmers, known as Gikwamba, also sought to join the case.
They filed a suit accusing West Kenya Sugar Company of using their name in the Mumias lease saga legal battle.
The farmers through their chairperson Elisha Huma, averred that the application seeking to stop lease of Mumias Sugar filed by five farmers is an abuse of the court process and should be dismissed with costs.
The five farmers last week obtained orders stopping any operations at the sugar milling plant after a suit was filed by the five farmers who challenged the lease on the basis that it was undertaken in an opaque manner.
