MUHORONI PROFILE MUHOIRONI is one of the areas in Luo-Nyanza, which is relatively rich and economically advanced due to its abundant sugarcane cash crops. The area, however, is reeling in abject poverty due to rampant corruption by top managers of the sugar companies, not paying in time for sugarcane delivered by farmers to the factories for processing, cheating in weighbridges, and many other ills. Bordering seven other parliamentary constituencies, namely Kisumu Town East in the West, Aldai in the northwest, Tinderet in the East, Kipkellion in the Northeast, Ainamoi in the South, Nyando in the Southwest, Muhoroni is a semi-cosmopolitan rural farming constituency, covering former white settler region in the Rift Valley and Nyanza Provinces, namely Songhor, Miwani, Kibos, Chemelil, Koru and Fort-Tennan along the Nakuru -Kisumu railway line. The inhabitants of this agriculturally rich constituency are a mixture of people from different ethnic groups, though the Luo are arguably the majority. There are several rural Luo locations within the constituency, apart from the settlement schemes, which were opened soon after the departure of White Settlers, soon after independence in 1963. Despite the fact that the new settlement areas are closer to the rural Kano plains locations, the scheme attracted new settlers from all over Rural Luo Locations as far afield as Ugenya, Gem, Alego, Sakwa, Seme, Uyoma, Kasipul-Kabondo, Kajulu, Kisumo and other rural locations. There were also new settlers from other communities like the Kalenjin, most of whom were formerly squatters in the white settlers farms, Abagusii, Abaluhyia and Kikuyu. The number of non-Luo settlers within the scheme areas has since dwindled, following the post-election violence of 2008. The scheme had attracted new settlers from all over Luo-Nyanza, with the Jo-Nyakach having the lion’s share, followed by those from Ugenya, Gem ,Alego, Seme, Sakwa, Uyoma, Kisumo, Kasipuyl-Kabondo and Karachuonyo locations . Apart from covering Kibos and Miwani locations, the constituency also extended its boundaries into rural Kano Plains locations like South East and part of the northeast. That is why the majority of the registered voters are members of the larger jo-Kano sub-clans. This advantage has given the people of Kano sub-clan the majority in voting pattern, and if they can sustain it for long, then members of other communities would always stand no chance of clinching the Muhoroni seat. Apart from producing most of the sugar cane crops in the region, Muhoroni has good rainfall for the production of other cash crops like maize, coffee, tea, bananas, citrus fruits, vegetables and it is also good for cattle rearing. But half of the farmers have switched to keeping the more economically important grade cattle, the majority, those living in the rural locations still prefer the zebu native cattle. The constituency has had only three MPs since its establishment, when it was sliced out of the old Nyando constituency in the late 1990s. Its first MP was Justus Aloo Ogeka (1992-1997}. He was elected on the Ford-Kenya ticket in the first multi-party elections. Politically Muhoroni constituency is an ODM stronghold. The incumbent MP, Prof. Ayiecho Olweny, although he has performed dismally, he is known to sing to the tone of Raila Odinga, the Prime Minister, each time he opens his mouth at any public gathering, be it a funeral place or a public rally. The man who has always given Prof. Olweny a run for his money is the Nairobi based businessman, Mr. James Onyango Koyoo. In 1992, Koyoo won in the preliminary nomination for Ford-Kenya, but was deliberately denied the party ticket by the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, after beating Ogeka and other aspirants, on suspicion that he had connection with KANU bigwigs. He again beat Prof. Ayiecho Olueny and others in 1997, but once again was denied the LDP party ticket, this time around by Raila Odinga. Raila instead supported his (Railas) cousin, Dr. William Odongo Omamo, who eventually won the election and served as the MP for the area between 1997 and 2002. Koyoo tried again in 2002, but this time he performed poorly on a KANU ticket, due to the euphoria of Narc that swept KANU out of power. He did not contest in 2007. But a former banker, Omulo Okal won the ODM primary nomination, but instead Prof. Ayiecho Olweny was declared the winner, amid protests by the voters, and issued with the party clearance certificate. As I have stated before in this article, Muhoroni constituency is the richest among the rural constituencies located in Luo-Nyanza, but its residents are reeling in poverty due to mismanagement, embezzlement, misappropriation and rampant corruption within the sugar companies. This has led to two of the factories having gone burst. They are Miwani and Muhoroni, which were placed under what the then Minister for Agriculture, Chris M Obure described as protective receivership, and that the factories were to be handed back to their former managers, Muhoroni after 90 days, while Miwani was do be audited and its finances realigned within 120 days. Muhoroni factory was re-opened soon, but for Miwani, it has been 12 years, and there are no signs of Miwani re-opening within the foreseeable future. What is known is that the very cartel of Asian business tycoons who had run it down, later got embroiled, scrambling for its 10,000 nucleus estate farm under suspicious circumstances. And what hurts the small sugarcane farmers most, and hitting them below the belt, is the allegations and rumours that their sweat, in the name of harvested sugarcane, is being stolen in thousands of tons, through the faulty weighbridges in some of the factories. It seems that the Ministry of Trades Weight and Measurements Department, has abdicated its responsibility of carrying out regular checks on weighing machines in order to ascertain whether the public are being cheated through the faulty weighing machines. It is believed sugarcane farmers are the worst hit. This well orchestrated siphoning of the poor farmers produce is making them lose millions of shillings through the cheatings at the weighbridges in the factories, when they deliver their cane for processing. Reports reaching us say, one particular factory in the area has perfected the art of cheating farmers of their millions of shillings, through deliberately adjusted weighbridge results. To confirm this, one disappointed farmer, who had delivered close to ten tons of raw cane to this particular factory did not believe his eyes, when it weighed only six and a half tons. The farmer became stubborn and later drove his tractor to another factory and instead of weighing only six and half tons, this time around, the same tractor load of sugarcane weighed nine and half tons. Had he delivered it to the first factory, he would have lost close to Kshs 10,000 in one single delivery. There are also unrealistic deductions in transportation costs, harvesting labor costs and many other hurdles facing sugar cane farmers, at the expense of a few wealthy people. There are so many unrealistic deals committed by top factory managers, such as hiring security personnel from private security providing firms at an inflated prices per each guards, which attracts kick-backs. In Miwani and Chemelil areas, there are also reported theft of cane in the field by a wealthy transporter who owns fleets of tractors, and is involved in contracted transportation of cane from the fields to the factories. With all these happening, the cane farmer is only getting peanuts out of his or her hard sweat, and is reduced to a pauper. Even the little money from the cane crop, he/she is also forced to wait for even more than six months before getting paid. An attempt was made by the government, which own both Miwani and Muhoroni sugar companies, to have them privatized. But the plan was thwarted by wealthy Asians with vested interest. The cartel moved to court deliberately to frustrate the plan, and engaged the government in endless legal tussles through courts. The area MP, Prof. Ayiecho is being accused of having been compromised and is also alleged to be collaborating well with the graft oriented sugar factory managers. The graft is so rampant, even with what is called “Helicopter Harvesting” system, whereas the harvesting team jump from one firm to the other, leaving more mature cane, whose owners can not afford “Kick-Backs”, to rot in the field for many months. It is affecting farmers in both settlement schemes and also in rural Kano locations. On many occasions, members of the Kenya Anti Corruption unit found nothing tangible to warrant any prosecution being instituted against anybody, but soon after their departures, internal and external auditors usually came out with claims of millions of shilling missing or improperly accounted for. And the status and plight of the suffering small scale sugarcane farmer remains unchanged. In the year 2012, Prof. Ayiecho appear to be heading for trouble in his re-election, and he will have to pay for his lackluster performance. Muhoroni could be the heartbeat of Luo Nyanza’s massive economic development, if sugar companies can be privatized and properly managed, with zero tolerance for thieving managers and other corrupt individuals.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 12:40:49 +0000