The TRUTH behind the ODINGA family and Kisumu Molasses Plant

· “Under the guise of empowering the Luo Community economically in the 1940s, Adonijah Jaramogi Oginga Odinga incorporated a company called Luo Thrift and Trading Company. He proceeded to travel across East Africa collecting money from Luos who wished to buy shares in the company…

· A colossal sum was raised some of which was invested in large scale sugar plantations in the Nyanza Sugar Belt, posho mills in several market places in Nyanza, real estate in Kisumu Town and Maseno, among other properties which also included a printing press and a bilingual weekly newspaper called The Nyanza Times, not to mention a public transport company called Lolwe…

· No sooner had these commercial ventures been put in place than transparency left through the window. Under the stewardship of Jaramogi, Luo Thrift and Trading Company did not call any Annual General Meetings as stipulated in The Companies Act, nor did it declare or issue dividends to its shareholders…

· Progressively, the properties bought with the proceeds from the poor shareholders changed hands mysteriously and became personal property. Those who attempted to raise this issue in public or in private were harassed and intimidated into silence…

· Although they are usually the most vocal on matters touching on corruption on the national front, Luo MPs have lost both legitimacy and credibility in terms of protecting their electorate and addressing their legitimate aspirations, for economic progress;

· By keeping silent on the fate of properties one family appear to have stolen from poor Luos through Luo Thrift and Trading Company, including Ofafa Memorial Hall…

· By the time Odinga died on January 20, 1994, most, if not all, of the assets bought under the flagship of Luo Thrift and Trading Company had mysteriously reverted to private companies associated with him…

· Three years later, his son and scion of his business and political dynasty, Raila Amolo Odinga, commenced another collection spree, again from poor Luos; under the guise of empowering them economically by assisting them to buy shares in the then stalled Molasses Complex, in Kisumu…

· While millions of shillings which Raila collected from Lous disappeared mysteriously into thin air, 240 acres of land where the Molasses Plant, in Kisumu, stands was transferred to the Odinga Family Business around the time leading to the KANU/NDP merger, after the General Election of 1997. NB: The actual merger reached fruition in 2001…

· Subsequent queries about the money only yielded one consistent but misleading answer from Oburu Odinga, Raila’s elder brother, who is today the Assistant minister of Finance. Oburu kept on repeating that the money was safe in a bank account…

· He declined to state the amount in the said account, which bank it was kept in and how much interest it was earning, if at all…

· If the money had been collected to assist the contributors to buy shares in the Kisumu Molasses Plant, how did it end up in a mysterious bank account and what was it doing in that account?

· Over one decade has elapsed since that money was collected from Luos; but it seems as if it is still lying in the unknown bank where it appears to be destined to lie forever, while many contributors wallow in abject poverty…

· As members of the Luo community began to come to terms with the fact that they had been swindled out of the shares they had been promised and that the over Kshs. 100 million or so raised could have disappeared into the pockets of Raila Odinga and Company, it was reported from Paris, the capital of France, that the shares they had been promised had been sold to someone else!

· According to the respectable Indian Ocean Newsletter No. 1065 of November 22, 2005, a Canadian company called Diamond-Works teamed up with Raila Odinga by taking 55% stake in his firm, Spectre International for US Dollars 2 million which is an equivalent of Kshs. 170 million…

· It was reported at the time that part of the amount from Diamond-Works of Canada was to serve to pay Spectre’s debts as the company has allegedly borrowed money for the project. Who did they borrow from after collecting from the poor Luos?

· The whole story about the Kisumu Molasses Plant has not been told, but the Odingas will no longer remain in a position where they will continue to withhold the truth from Kenyans, in general, and the Luo community, in particular, about the mystery surrounding their acquisition of the Kisumu Molasses Plant with the connivance of “the Moi-Nyayo-KANU regime!”

Nothing to add: Enough said! Everything is in black and white. Alluta Continua.

Moses Onyango (Source: Africa news)