Today's dailies report that Raila Odinga, Kenya's PM, has pledged that members of the public who contributed shares to the molasses plant (close to twenty years ago!), will be allocated shares "once we are listed in the stock exchange." My guess is that listing will not take place any time soon; certainly not before the 2012 General Elections (I don't think Uhuru Kenyatta, who as Finance Minister has a say, will countenance that), and probably not before 2017 (or even 2020, or even 2030). So, if there was any cheering at the Tom Mboya Labour College where the announcement was made, who's kidding whom?
The bigger question, though, is this: What makes Raila Odinga think he's the one to decide when -- or, as has clearly been the case to-date, if -- co-shareholders of the molasses plant are to be allowed into the company, to share in the olemo with the Odinga family?
On page 20 of the busiess section of Daily Nation of March 23, 2009, Raila himself reveals that: "Locals contributed Sh 1.7 billion and a developer (Spectre International) brought $15 million (Sh 1.2 billion). This enabled the moribund plant to get on its feet." Does that not give "locals" a controlling 58.62% of the company? Instead of the Odinga family, shouldn't they, and those who set up the company prior to its becoming moribund, be calling the shots?
A pertinent point here is this: The Luo have no royal family, and never had! Just imagine what Kikuyus would have thought of James Mwangi if he had adopted the same selfish attitude with respect to the founding shareholders of what is now the giant Equity Bank -- in which I myself have a very few shares!
Yes, we can blame past governments for Nyanza's backwardness; but the condenscending attitude displayed by Raila over the weekend is very much part of the reason Nyanza continues to stagnate and whine in despondency. In effect, the buck stops with him. Increasingly, the electorate is restless in the face of this perpetuity -- which is worse in many ways than the impunity everyone is talking about these days. This is impunity squared; and the joke is in the absence of detail and credibility.
The only silver lining I see in the pronouncement is that the intense pressure on the Odinga family by grass-roots Luo is finally having some effect. But promises will not do; nor will passing the buck to the usual "bogeymen".
And then there is the historic injustice personified by the Luo Thrift Union. When will that be addressed? This was no Mbi-I-Kamiti, nor Nyakinyua, nor those many group land-buying companies that Central Province is so well known for.
If you ask me, the share allocation at Kisumu Molasses Company should have been effected at least a decade ago. In fact, subscribers should as a matter of course already know how many shares they have, and should already be co-beneficiaries of any dividend distribution so far authorized and made. They should not be treated like other retail investors who might wish to scramble for "peanut" share allocations during a promissory IPO which may not come in the lifetime of many in the rapidly aging and permanently deprived "cheering crowd" of Nyanza.
The time to allocate the shares is now, long before the 2012 election frenzy; and this does not require NSE listing. This should be the kind of gonywa Nyanza electors should be shouting about. The time to get serious is now. The people want to concentrate on development. It is the politicians who will not put politics aside. The people are not perpetually running for president, it is Raila who is -- clearly not satisfied with being Prime Minister. Perhaps we should bite the bullet and keep the "Premiership" out of the constitution. Out, out, kabisa. It does not seem to be doing anyone any "real good" (power-wise), least of all Raila.
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