By Brian Byron
Former Acting SONY SUGAR MD, Mr. Bernard Otieno, was replaced after a spirited declaration of persona non grata by senator Ochilo Ayacko. Afterwards came James Oluoch who has practically fired all casuals and contracted employees of SONY Sugar Co Ltd. We wonder if that’s what the senator meant by reviving the company. Contrast that with the fact that all the lawyers who have benefited from billions in fake compensation claims are Ochilo’s friends and close associates, then you realize that senator Ayacko is the enemy number one of SONY Sugar Co Ltd and by extension an enemy of the sugarcane farmers and dependants.
Available records at SONY sugar company archives demonstrate that he’s one of those who owe the company monies accruing from unpaid accommodation fees and other bills. Also, the many people on the street believe he supplied expired fertilizers,either directly or through proxies, earlier on as a minister in the NARC government.
We ask the senator what his plans are considering that the first assignment of his preferred MD has been to send casuals home…. What next?
The rational thing would have been for Ochilo Mbogo to push his bossom buddies and advocates who swindled the factory to return the loot. That can be used to pay for annual maintenance. He should also pay up the debts which company records show he has owed the company for decades. This can equally be used to pay the casuals their pending dues ahead of their forced departure.
What is emerging is a sustained effort to deliberately depreciate the value of the company in order to make it cheaper to the cartels ahead of it’s privatization. Already, some smoke suggest greasing of hands of known politicos.
In short, all those individuals Hon. Ayacko is associated to or has recommended for appointment to SONY Sugar Co Ltd have proved to be either incompetent or corrupt or both. From Hon. Owino Likowa who has failed to stand up and mobilize resources for the company; to James Oluoch who has now fired all casual labourers.
All of us know too well that Hon. Ayacko supported Wakili Kerario Marwa for Speaker of Migori County Assembly and they have historical ties. The same Kerario, it has emerged, benefited massively from fake compensation claims made to and paid by Sony Sugar Co Ltd. It’s clear from the foregoing that Wakili Ayacko has as his solo strategy to bring down the company in order that the people of the sugar-belt can be impoverished further and made more vulnerable even as he seeks to be (the most disastrous) Migori County Governor in 2022.
(views expressed here are those of the writer)
