One more body found after violent Miwani takeover

Burnt lorry

A group of youth mill around the shell of burnt lorry at Chemuorsoi area at the border of Kisumu and Nandi Counties following violence that erupted after a botched eviction attempt at Miwani Sugar Company on March 2, 2022.

Photo credit: Tonny Omondi | Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

  • The deceased truck driver ad gone missing for more than 24 hours before his body was found.
  • Police in Kisumu have been asked to investigate an MP and a sugar factory official for incitement.

The death toll following the botched Miwani Sugar Company takeover has risen to three after the body of the truck driver that was set ablaze on Wednesday was found in the sugar plantation.

Willis Akong’o, who had gone missing for more than 24 hours, was found in a sugarcane plantation, a few metres from where his vehicle had landed in a ditch before he managed to scamper to safety.

Distraught family members of the 28-year-old had intensified their search for in neighbouring health facilities and mortuaries.

According to his mother, Mrs Fransisca Akong’o, her son was one of the people hired by auctioneers to ferry some of the enforcers hired to effect an eviction order allegedly issued by Environment and Land Court on February 9.

Before embarking on the job, the father of one, who worked at Kondele in Kisumu City, called his mother to inform her of the impending business.

“However, we got concerned when news of the chaos broke. Unfortunately, we could not reach him on his phone from 9.30am on Wednesday,” she said.

“We visited both the mortuaries and the hospitals at Ahero County Hospital, Masogo Hospital and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital in vain,” she had said earlier, before the discovery of the body.

Willis’s family had expressed fear that he could have been burnt in the sugarcane plantation after an angry mob set ablaze his vehicle and the plantation to protest the seizure of the property by auctioneers who were acting for Crossley Holdings Ltd.

“The reports we are getting is that he failed to control the vehicle as the enraged public threw stones, causing him to lose control and land in a ditch,” said his uncle, Mr John Ogole.

Willis managed to escape to the nearby sugar plantation, but had not been traced by 2pm.

Incitement claims

Due to hostility on the ground, the family called in police as they combed the expansive field for their relative.

This happened as Miwani Receiver Manager Francis Ooko said that more than 2,000 acres of cane had gone up in flames.

“These were people who trespassed on our premises and vandalised our property, broke our cash office safe and stole our laptops,” he said.

While acknowledging that the case regarding the 10,000 acres of the company in receivership is yet to be dispensed with at the Court of Appeal, he pointed out that the land where the factory sits was not in contention.

“The title number 7545/2 is not part of what is in court. The case of the nucleus land 7545/3 is still pending and there is no such order to evict Miwani,” he said.

While auctioneers, backed by three police officers and 50 hired enforcers easily managed to evict close to 100 staff who had reported on duty on Wednesday, their effort to effect the same for people who occupied the land housing senior staff quarters in Chemursoi, Nandi County, turned tragic.

Meanwhile, Police in Kisumu have been asked to investigate an MP and a sugar factory official for incitement.

Auctioneers hired by Crossley Holdings Ltd have filed a complaint at Kondele police station claiming that the two incited Miwani residents to challenge its occupation of a 9,300-acre land at the centre of an ownership dispute with the collapsed sugar miller.

Sparknet Auctioneers Services handed over the land to Crossley Holdings after taking control of the entire property.

In the chaos, two vehicles and sugar plantations were also burned by residents who had ganged up to resist the seizure of the property.

Photo credit: Tonny Omondi | Nation Media Group

The High Court in Kisumu declared Crossley the valid owner of the land in October 2021 after ruling that there was no evidence of fraud in the firm’s property acquisition nearly 15 years ago.

Consultant Nagendra Saxena sued Miwani Sugar in 1993 to recover a Sh40 million debt. The suit dragged on until 2007 when Mr Saxena was allowed to claim his fees.

Together with 20 per cent interest running from 1987, Mr Saxena was to collect Sh200 million. The High Court allowed the consultant to auction Miwani Sugar’s assets.

Crossley Holdings’ Sh752 million emerged the highest bid for Miwani Sugar’s 9,300-acre plantation and main asset.

But the government opposed the auction, claiming the sale was not regular.

In 2010, Crossley Holdings director Sukhwinder Singh Chatte was charged alongside former magistrate Abdulkadir Elkindy, Ian Gakoi Mawa, Odongo Philips Katiba, Moses Nyaburo Osewe, Kefa Lumumba Atunga and Epainto Apono Okoyo for allegedly colluding to defraud Miwani Sugar of the land.

They were acquitted in 2019, but the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) appealed the decision at the High Court.

Justice Mumbi Ngugi ordered that the matter return to the Chief Magistrate’s Court, as the accused individuals moved to the Court of Appeal.

In 2020, after the government announced plans to repossess the Miwani Sugar land, Crossley Holdings filed a petition at the Kisumu High Court, seeking to be declared the valid owner of the land, having bought it at an auction.

Eviction of occupants

The firm sued the Agriculture ministry, the Agriculture and Food Authority, Kisumu County and Miwani Sugar.

Justice Anthony Ombwayo in October 2021, ruled that there was no evidence presented to show that there was any fraud in the auction, and declared Crossley Holdings the valid landowner.

Miwani Sugar has since challenged the decision at the Court of Appeal, but no orders have been issued stopping execution of Justice Ombwayo’s judgment.

The judge added that Crossley Holdings was free to evict any individual occupying the land.

Additionally, the respondents in the petition were ordered to pay Crossley Holdings Sh480 million in legal costs.

On February 9, 2022 the High Court ordered Kisumu police to provide security as Crossley evicted anyone on the land.

“The county police commandant Kisumu County, the county commissioner Kisumu County and the county commandant Kisumu County to provide security to enable Sparknet Auctioneers Services to effectively execute the court order given on September 30, 2021 and issued at Kisumu on October 15, 2021… by ensuring law and order is maintained during execution,” Justice M.I. Shimenga ruled.

“The police and/or security agents are not to be involved in the execution process, but their duty is to strictly offer security to and supervise the auctioneer and further ensure that peace and order is maintained during the exercise,” the judge added.

Police complied with the court order, and offered three officers to supervise Sparknet’s workers as they claimed possession of the land on Crossley Holdings’ behalf.