WR has been philanthropic enough to return 100 acres of land to an IDP. Should RAO also begin ‘cleansing’ some of his skeletons?

What is the truth about the Kisumu Molasses Plant; does anyone have the accurate dossier on its history, status and ownership?


Mr. Google tells me so far:

BACKGROUND

Originally proposed in 1977 by the Madhvani Group as a joint venture with the Kenyan government to create jobs and generate revenue in a poor area, the Molasses Project looked to build a plant near Kisumu to produce alcohol and other products from raw molasses.

Work on the project began in 1981 but by 1983 the Kenyan Chemical and Food Corporation, the government’s special purpose vehicle set up to partner the Madhvani Group was insolvent and the Kenyan government was forced to stand by loan guarantees made. By then the cost of the project had reached $119 million against the original total project projected cost of $61.4 million.

Over the next four years various proposals were put forward to revive the project but all required funding from the Kenyan government which had adopted the firm policy that no funds were to be made available and any future revival of the project would have to obtain external financial support.

In 1986 President Moi at a rally in the Moi Stadium, Kisumu, said that the Kisumu ‘Molasses Project’ was going to be revived and Dr Ouko, in whose constituency the plant was sited, would be placed in charge of its revival.


1. When Ouko was eventually murdered after committing suicide, Troon had a theory that he believed there had been a dispute between Robert Ouko and Nicholas Biwott over the cancellation of the project; that Biwott and others, through an intermediary, had sort to extract ‘kickbacks’ from the project; and that Dr Ouko, at the time of his murder, was writing a ‘corruption report’ to go to President Moi exposing the scandal. It could have been in an attempt to stop this exposure, according to Troon, that Dr Ouko was murdered.

2. Around 1996, Raila went around Luo Nyanza collecting money to revive the molasses project. A total of Ksh. 58 million was collected locally and Ksh. 20 million collected from Kenyans living abroad. At one time Orengo mounted pressure on Raila to explain where the money went but Raila did not come up with any good explanation except saying that the money was safe in a bank account

3. In an interview with the Nation (kitambo) Raila said:

Nation: Last week the leadership of the Democratic Party revisited the issue of the Kisumu Molasses Plant and accused you of collecting money from the public ostensibly to revive the project, but which did not happen. The DP said you should be held to account. What do you say?

Raila: First, I think the record needs to be put straight. I was never a member of the Kisumu Development Trust. I am not one of their trustees. However, I was and still am supporting the revival of the Kisumu Molasses Plant. Other facts ought to be made clear here. This project was conceived, initiated and began at the time when most of those in the leadership of the DP today were in government. As a matter of fact, the Minister of Finance at that time was the DP leader (Mwai Kibaki). It is him who owes us a lot of explanation over what happened to the billions of shillings that were sunk into the project. We are trying to clean up the mess created by these individuals now in the Opposition.

What is the truth (debate)?

@Jaluo, are you implying that The Finance Minister then was controlling the account?

@kingfisher

''utajitetea ukiwa pande gani?''

Sina haja ya kujitetea, kilu mutu abebe mzigo wake, au sio? I am shopping for THE 2012 candidate, lazima we look at all the ‘’front-runners’’ equally without bias and analyse all the skeletons in their closets…..hii maneno ya ku-vote tribe all the time is not helping us.

@nostoppingthis

That is what RAO said verbatim. My opinion is that makosa ilifanyikana lakini because of his ‘’leader’’ status in Luo Nyanza, no one will speak out about it or challenge him ....I am also in the dark and looking for the accurate dossier ; For starters, the money that was ‘’safe in a bank account’’- was it invested, reimbursed or is still in the said account?....Maswali mengi

On another tangent, isn't RAO turning into Vasco Da Gama, always out of the country ?

@Kihageri, legally?