BY NT CORRESPONDENT.
Potato farmers in Nyandarua County have petitioned the Government to re-open the public-owned Midland cold storage and processing plant at Njabini trading centre.
The aggrieved farmers have protested that the closure of the 25-acre community project had exposed them to untold suffering at the hands of unscrupulous middle-men who dictate the market value of their produce.
More than 12,000 households in the county depended on income from the ultra-modern facility during it’s peak operations until 2012 when it was virtually crippled by external forces.
“We have endured financial ruin for too long. We can no longer afford exhorbitant production costs, diminishing returns and massive post-harvest losses for our highly perishable potatoes. The Government should rescue us as a matter of urgency,” the spokeman of the agitated farmers told pressmen.
He explained that the farmers were perplexed when the defunct Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC), at the behest of the Agriculture ministry, launched investigations in 2012 over alleged fraud in the acquisition of the land on which the facility was constructed.
Midland Ltd had rolled out a huge cold storage warehouse with capacity to hold 6,000 tons of potatoes under controlled temperatures, 22,000 square feet floor area accommodating a French Fries processing line and a dehydrating unit with auxiliary machinery.
The innovative investment had attracted foreign investors, who recognized it’s potential as a source of supply for intermediate and end-user food items.
“The Government has already bailed out many agricultural sectors from mismanagement. All we are seeking is intervention to facilitate us reap fruits of our labour,” the farmers pleaded with the authorities.
They lamented that government regulations following the current Corona crisis forbade public gatherings where they could articulate their complaints.
The farmers recalled that trouble for Midland Ltd started when the defunct KACC, which was replaced by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), instituted recovery proceedings in the High Court in Nakuru but the matter was transferred to Nyahururu.
Before the civil suit was heard and determined, the State agency filed a criminal case in the Anti-Corruption court in Nairobi against former Lands Minister and Kipipiri MP Amos Kimunya, the former Director of Land Adjudication and Settlement, Lilian Wangiri Njenga, Midland Chairman Junghae Wainaina and the firm.
Interestingly, Midland was registered as a public company on February 11, 1987. By December 12, 2004, it had 1,496 shareholders comprising many prominent personalities, private companies and self-help groups mainly drawn from Kinangop.
Retired President Mwai Kibaki and former First Lady, the late Lucy Kibaki, were among the shareholders. The firm had 12 directors as at April 14, 20007, including Kimunya, who relinquished his post on January 28, 2006.
Kimunya and Lilian Wangiri Njenga were first charged on March 17, 2014 with abuse of office, fraudulent disposal of public property and breach of trust by persons employed in public. Kimunya, who served in the Kibaki administration as Minister for Lands and Housing between January 6, 2003 and February 11, 2005 was separately charged with failure to disclose his private interest in the firm to his appointing authority.
The former Minister and the Land Adjudication Director we’re alleged to have illegally allocated the land, identified as Nyandarua/Njabini/5852, to Midland Ltd, knowing it was unavailable for alienation. The offences were allegedly committed at the ministry headquarters at Ardhi House in Nairobi on June 30, 2005.
Wainaina and Midland were accused of fraudulent acquisition of the land on February 6, 2006.
The trial started before the Nairobi Senior Principal Magistrate Felix Kombo on July 14, 2015 and the prosecution called 17 witnesses. Defence lawyers for the accused persons made oral arguments.
In his decision pronounced on May 20, Kombo exonerated Kimunya, Njenga, Wainaina and the firm of any wrong-doing and declared that the excision and transfer of the land was legitimate. Kombo Mwero, the Administrator of the Settlement Trustee Fund (STF), had legally executed the transfer documents following subdivision of the land on August 12, 2005, the Magistrate reasoned in the no-case-to-answer ruling.
Kombo declared there was no criminality involved in the manner STF allocated the land to Midland since the Agriculture ministry and Njabini Farmers Training College, which previously occupied the larger portion of the land, did not have title deeds.
Further, the Magistrate pointed out, the participation of the highest local and national leaders and the very public high-level launch of the Midland factory discounted the well-choreagraphed theory by the EACC that it was a fraudulent scheme to benefit a few individuals.
The court observed that Wainaina acted on behalf of the Midland board and charging him amounted to “selective prosecution.”
