Official hooliganism is no way to solve Magadi Soda impasse

Kajiado Governor Joseph ole Lenku may very well be right in his resolve to shut down the Lake Magadi soda ash plant owned by gigantic Indian conglomerate Tata Chemicals over a whopping Sh17 billion land rate arrears.

Tata Chemicals has been disputing the bill, which has accumulated since it started defaulting some five years ago, and is also pleading that it is in dire financial straits and unable to pay up.

THREAT

Talks with the county government over the past few months have deadlocked, and Mr Lenku has been warning that the company either pays up or closes shop.

The governor made good on his threat on Friday, when he forced the facility to close. However, the methods he used were completely unacceptable in a civilised state. Instead of using the legal and recognised enforcement mechanisms, he deployed a large force of politicians and civilians to invade and paralyse activities at the Lake Magadi facility.

A custodian of law and order should be the last institution to use unlawful methods as a tool of governance. Particularly troubling is the use of unruly youth in campaigns of harassment, intimidation and threats.

UNEMPLOYMENT

In a country with large numbers of unemployed youth, it is criminal to exploit desperation and hopelessness in misguided political adventures that could easily spiral out of control.

Once you unleash the genie of violence among idle youth, it will only be a short time before they graduate into new careers with little aim other than use their newfound status in violent criminal enterprises.

We cannot have forgotten how the regime of President Daniel arap Moi armed and trained irregulars in the Rift Valley for campaigns of ethnic violence intended as an antidote to the multiparty campaign in the early 1990s.

Once that culture of violence was entrenched, it became impossible to contain. To date, the threat of ethnic violence targeted at so-called ‘alien’ or ‘settler’ communities remains an ingrained feature of Rift Valley politics.

THREAT

Once they are done with Magadi Soda, the youth unleashed on the company will need something else to keep them in pocket, and satisfy the bloodlust.

If Mr Lenku cannot find other assignments for them, they will effectively go freelance, selling their services to the highest bidder or launching their own campaigns of violence, extortion and blackmail against whatever target strikes their fancy.

That is the threat that must now be nipped in the bud. The national government security organs must step in and neutralise the threat created by the Kajiado County administration.

It can also come in as an honest broker to mediate a settlement that is best for the people of Kajiado.

One thing that must be closely looked at is that, beyond the contested land rates, there is the bigger picture of multinational corporations owning massive tracts of land in various parts of the country which county governments are now eyeing covetously.

EXPLOITATIVE

Also coming up is the issue of supposedly unjust and exploitative agreements which allowed large companies to continue operating after Independence, to the detriment of locals who remained landless and reaped little benefit while billions of shillings in profits are repatriated to London, Paris and wherever else the corporations had their homes.

We have seen that with tea plantations in Kericho County and the DelMonte pineapple plantation straddling Kiambu and Murang’a counties.

It has become an issue of land justice with a clamour for some of the vast lands to be returned to public ownership or cut up for settlement.

Even in Kajiado, Governor Lenku has floated the idea of seizing some of the 200,000-plus acres under Magadi Soda and redistributing it to landless locals.

If Magadi Soda is genuinely unable to pay, then it can go into receivership and the business opened to other suitors.

PUBLIC INTEREST

It cannot, however, be allowed to go scot-free by using the hackneyed line that what is spends on corporate social responsibility can be a substitute for the land tax.

The public interest can also be secured by the county government taking a stake in the enterprise rather than destroying it.

These are all matters that ought to be open to fresh discussions and negotiations. But redress must be sought through structured dialogue, not official hooliganism.

At a time when both the national and county governments should be doing everything to woo industry, it is extremely unwise to act in a manner that will force both local and foreign investors to take their money elsewhere.

Business demands predictable regulatory and dispute resolution mechanisms, not the uncertainty of regimes of where tin-pot dictators can seize or close enterprises at will.

[email protected] @MachariaGaitho