There are many questions going on in the minds of poor sugarcane farmers of Western Kenya as they ponder about the many ways the Rai Family use to steal from them.
And these are the issues none of the leaders and politicians from the region ever addresses because it is believed they have been bribed and pocketed by the billionaire family to remain silent.
Just recently, a farmer Evans Chune asked Bonnie Khalwale the Kakamega senator on X for help in sugarcane prices, delayed payments by factories and lack of affordable transport to the factories.
His reply was “I am on top of this. That farmer should know that no help will be forthcoming his way!”
So big is the problem that the farmers have given up to fate as the company never addresses these complaints. In a recent case concluded at the Milimani Small Claims Court and seen by this blog, West Kenya Sugar Company was found guilty of having used fraudulent contracts to steal from a contracted farmer. It was ordered to pay up. The farmer had complained that the company had without his knowledge or permission used his Brother which are in their sto date create contracts which assigned him two more farms yet he is the only one who owns the farm.
That the farmer’s late brother had signed the contracts on his behalf when they had actually used forged signatures. The company then purported to have provided services on the other imaginary farms at the request of the farmer. Eventually, these farms never supplied any sugarcane to the company and so the costs were then transferred to the farmer’s genuine account which supplied sugarcane wiping out all his entire earnings. A fate suffered by so many other helpless farmers dealing with this company.
In a judgement delivered at the Small Claims Court Milimani Nairobi on July 18 2024, magistrate DS Aswani observed that the said contracts were a fraud and thus unenforceable.
The company through its key witness one Lee Charles Ochola who lookedrudderless and confused as he struggled to defend fraud could not explain the authenticity of the said contracts. He could not even confirm whether or not some field assistants who were the only people the farmer had dealt with still worked for the company as those who had signed the contracts on behalf of the company were strangers to the farmer. That a company can forge farmers’ details so as to steal from them sounds so frightening. It only needs your details and any other individuals details and forged signatures to scam you.
While the company maintains that it is possible for contracts to be signed by a farmer’s next of kin, the next of kin must be appointed by the farmer in the presence of the local administration officer who has to stamp the contract. This was never the case in this matter.
While the company claimed that the three contracts were signed by the farmer’s late brother in the presence of the has adduced before court. is the very least, the company ought to have proved that indeed the farmer had more than one farm.
Said the resident magistrate, “The majority decision of the Supreme Court in presidential election petition No 1 of 2017 between Raila Amolo Odinga and Another vs IEBC and 2 others (2017) eKLR had the following to say on the evidential burden of proof in paragraph 132.
(132) Though the legal and evidential burden of establishing the facts and contentions which will support a party’s case is static and “remains constant through a trial with the plaintiff, however, “depending on the effectiveness with which he or she discharges this, the evidential burden keeps shifting and its position at any time is determined by answering the question as to who would lose if no further evidence were introduced.
“I am,therefore, persuaded that the responded (the company) failed to meet this burden the same having shifted to it and find that it has failed to prove the basis for the alleged deductions on the account of the three farms.
“The contracts purported to have been entered into by the claimant’s (the farmer) brother on his behalf for the reasons given above are not enforceable.
In light of the foregoing analysis, the claimant’s claim succeeds as the purported deductions on account of the unenforceable contracts cannot be legitimised by this court.“
Meanwhile, poor helpless farmers continue to lose money in many other fraudulent ways including the inflation of services and products provided by the company and unexplained reductions of tonnage from farmers’ sugarcane during the weighing process. Farmers being deducted for services or products they never received or double invoicing for such services and products is very common. Farmers have to bribe their way so as to get permits for their sugarcane to be harvested and they have to bribe company employees to load and carry the sugarcane. Woe unto those farmers who are not contracted and wish to supply their sugarcane to the factory.
It costs them an arm and a leg to get registered and get permits.
But it is the sugarcane weighing process which is run like a cartel. In most cases, farmers do not accompany the trucks to the weighing bridges. So tonnage reductions are effected in the absence of the owners of the load.
It is rumoured that some of these stolen tonnes are loaded onto the a accounts of contracted suppliers or a favoured clique of farmers who get paid. Because they are contracted, they are presumed to supply sugarcane at any time.
In the absence of a voice to defend farmers as the politicians and other leaders remain silent; the Directorate of Criminal Investigations should come in to investigate these malpractices and rescue poor farmers. And they can only succeed if they were to set up a complaints desk at the factory.
Rai monopoly and dominance in the sugar industry in the country was witnessed publicly when he imported and supplied contaminated sugar to consumers. A scandal that made him to appear before Mps to answer to the criminal allegations, unfortunately money greased hands in the committee and he was given clean bill of health when consumers contracted cancerous diseases due to this bioterrorism act by Rai and the family.
There's no story that cannot be told. We cover the stories that others don't want to be told, we bring you all the news you need. If you have tips, exposes or any story you need to be told bluntly and all queries write to us [email protected] also find us on Telegram
