After President Ruto issued death threats to him, billionaire Jaswant Singh has now declared he will not hold Mumias Sugar company hostage anymore. He is withdrawing the court cases against the company. Nobody knows what happens after that because he still owns the company.
Billionaire businessman Jaswant Rai has filed a notice to withdraw all applications he had filed before the Court of Appeal and the High Court amid threats by President William Ruto.
Three notices have been filed at the court of appeal by West Sugar which is owned by Rai and one at the Milimani Commercial Courts by Rai and his firm.
“Take notice that West Sugar and Jaswani Rai wholly discontinue and withdraw their claim in this suit,” reads the notice before the Milimani Commercial Courts.
The matter before the High Court involves contempt of court proceedings against Sarbjit Singh Rai, Rakesh Kumar, and Stephen Kihimba.
The three were guilty of defying court orders to cease operations at Mumias.
They were subsequently fined Sh100,000 each and directed to appear before Justice Alfred Mabeya for sentencing. They have since stopped the sentencing at the appellate court.
The other three applications before the Court of Appeal are against appeals filed by PV Rao and Kenya Commercial Bank over the cancellation of the lease, and a different appeal by Ugandan Based firm-Sarrai Group seeking to overturn Justice Alfred Mabeyas’s ruling.
In that ruling, Mabeya canceled the 20-year lease awarded to Sarai.
He stopped the deal on the grounds that it would benefit KCB Group and ignored the interest of Mumias shareholders and other lenders.
Sarrai is owned by Jaswant’s brother Sarbjit Singh Rai.
The applications to withdraw will be handled on a date to be issued by the respective courts
This has been a big story in the country but there is an even bigger story with this Rai business empire in Kenya.
In 2020 one of the biggest and most fertile pieces of land in our country, namely Yala Swamp was handed over to Lake Agro Ltd which is owned by the Rai family empire – Jaswant Singh Rai, Tejveer Singh Rai, and Onkar Singh Rai. Yala Swamp is a 5,000 acre of super-rich land and an important water filtration system as Kenyan rivers feed Lake Victoria.
That piece of land is now owned by the Rais and they have no interest in doing anything there other than hold it and later sell it for billions. That place can produce enough food to feed the entire Siaya County population.
It was the home of so many rare fish like Ningu, osoga and the mamoth kamongo which no longer exist because the place has been ruined. That is where those really delicate fish species breed and it has been messed up and the whole place was given to Dominion company from the US by the Lake Basin Development Authority (LBDA) which is itself a curse on the people of Nyanza.
I mean how do you sell the best assets you have in the country to companies that don’t want to do anything productive for the country with those assets?
In the Yala Swamp land grab by the Rais, there is even a more sad angle.
“All debts or liabilities due and owing by the Transferor in respect of up to the date of transfer as set out above shall be received and paid by the Transferor. The Transferee is not assuming nor will it intend to assume any liabilities whatsoever incurred by the Transferor in the business up to the date of transfer,” the notice reads in part.”
What Jaswant Singh is saying here is that they just took the assets from Dominion and will not pay any debts owed to suppliers, farmers, or even the terrible LBDA. This means the Rais will not do any business on the 5,000-acre land. For them, it is a piece of gold they grabbed and they will wait for decades and sell it when the price is in billions.
How can James Orengo allow this to happen in the most important asset in his county? How much money did these Rais pay to grab Yala Swamp and who did they pay that money to? Give them back any money they paid and tell them to get lost from that place and then turn it over to the citizens and set up agricultural cooperatives there and you can do wonders for the people and the country.
Maybe Orengo can issue his own death threat to Jaswant Singh to get out of Yala Swamp. The best option is for James Orengo, Raila Odinga, and the national government as well as the National Land Commission to sit down with Jaswant Singh and hand over Yala Swamp to Siaya County.
If that does not happen Siaya residents should stage demos there and take back their land.
Here were the lies that were given by the National Land Commission and Jaswant Singh when handed Yala Swamp to the Rais.
Investor to pump in Sh20b to reclaim Yala swamp, create 2,000 jobs
By Edwin Nyarangi | Nov. 27, 2022 |
Siaya County residents will benefit from a Sh20 billion project after the National Land Commission allocated Lake Agro Ltd some 17,250 acres of land at the Yala Swamp for agricultural use in a 66 years lease agreement.
NLC commissioners Reginald Okumu, Esther Mathenge, James Tuitoek and Tiyah Galgalo held public hearings of the intended allocation of LR. Nos Usonga/Usonga/Block 1/4, 7 & 8 to Lake Agro Ltd between June 13 and 16th this year in Siaya.
Yesterday, Mr Okumu , who chaired the panel listening to grievances raised by residents, told The Sunday Standard that the commission made the decision after the investors met requisite recommendations to invest in the area.
“Considering the length of time it takes to reclaim land and heavy capital requirements which includes costs of completion of reclamation of the land which includes land reserved for the Yimbo, Alego and Usonga communities, we are of the view that a lease term of 66 years is appropriate to Lake Agro Limited,” said Okumu.
The commission recommended that Siaya County Government, Lake Agro Limited and communities of Yimbo, Alego and Usonga formulate an MoU on the roles and responsibilities of each party.
Okumu said this will ensure better management of resources with recommendations of Yala Delta Land Use Development Plan providing reclamation of parcels reserved for communities.
The National Land Commission wants public agencies including interested parties charged with mandates touching on matters of environment, conservation, sustainable management and use of land based resources discharge their responsibilities in line with applicable laws and processes.
“It is therefore our finding that approximately 17,250 acres of Yala Swamp in consideration for allocation is public land held in trust by County Government of Siaya under Article 62(2) of the Constitution and not community land as submitted by objecting parties,” said Okumu.
Advocate Patrick Ogolla who represented Lake Agro Ltd during the hearings, said the company will create 2,000 jobs for residents and will engage in large scale rice, sugarcane, soya and fish farming.
He said the company had already spent Sh55 million on the parcel which is a commitment to investing in the farm besides a plan to create a Corporate Social Responsibility initiative for the community.
Ogolla said these initiatives include scholarship programs for children in the community and 15 per cent of employees to be from the community for available job opportunities.
Ogolla said the sugar factory was already 70 per cent complete while the rice and soya mills rehabilitated for operation. They will also build schools, roads, hospitals and support locals to reclaim their portion of the swamp and develop it.
He told the hearing that transaction between Dominion Farms Limited and Lake Agro Limited has not been concluded due to various conditions that need to be met and that they have no intention of creating animosity having no part in naming the said Block Usonga/Usonga.
“Lake Agro Limited practised due diligence presenting the National Land Commission with the relevant documents, 9,250 acres was set apart in 1970s in regards to public land provisioning the county council to hold in trust for the community of the area, this process was carried out in accordance with section 1(17) of the Constitution and the Trust Land Act,” said Ogolla.
He said there have been some objectors who claimed not to have been compensated in 1970 and that there had been clarifications from the representatives of the 82 families that they were compensated for their buildings and crops.
Ogolla told the hearing that the 82 families were not compensated for their land because the understanding was that they were to be resettled in the land after reclamation, in 2006, a further setting apart was done by the county council with an additional 8,000 acres.
Dominion Farms Limited was brought on board to commercialize the utilization of the Swamp and increase the benefits to the Community, the investor was given a lease of 25 years on what is now Usonga/Usonga Block 1/4 measuring 8,000 acres.
This was done by the county councils of Siaya and Bondo so that the investor may initiate agricultural projects, which included rice, banana, and sugarcane as well as cotton production in addition to aquaculture farming.
The Dominion Farms Limited venture was touted as the single largest investment project in the region, whose agricultural interests were seen as a major boon to the economy of Siaya, it was hoped that the investment would spur economic development in the entire Lake Basin but it exited the scene seven years before the conclusion of its contract.
However, the project encountered severe hurdles when an additional 8,000 acres that were set aside in 2006 was to be leased to Dominion Farms Limited for expansion, Communities raised concerns that they had been overlooked while the investor was being considered.
Community agitation plus other factors led to the exit of Dominion Farms Limited and the formation of a Joint Committee of the County Assembly of Siaya which invited Lake Agro Limited to take over what Dominion Farms Limited had invested in the Swamp.
Yala Ecosystem site support group,Yala Swamp Community Land Committee, Yimbo Ber CBO, Community Wildlife Committee, Bunyala Yala Ecosystem site support Group, Yala Planning Advisory Committee, Nature Kenya Conservation Alliance of Kenya, Lake City Investment Company Limited were listed as objectors to Lake Agro Limited take over.
Community Initiative Action Group Kenya, former Alego Usonga MP Samuel Weya, Col. Wabwire Mabati,Yala ICCA, Edwin Ogwe, Samaki Working Group of Kenya, Yimbo and Alego communities, Yala Swamp Indigenous Community and 82 families on matters concerning Yimbo were also in the list who did not want the new investor to take over the project.
County Government was listed as the Respondent in the matter while Kenya Wildlife Service, National Environmental Management Authority, Water Resources Authority, Lake Basin Development Authority, County Assembly of Siaya and Lake Agro Limited were listed as interested parties in the matter.
So there you go. In 2020 Jaswant Singh promised to invest Sh. 20 billion in Yala Swamp. Three years later in 2023, he has not invested even one penny there. How can Kenya government and Siaya County government rationalize this madness and give so much of Kenyan’s wealth to outright thieves?
