The process of leasing the public mills namely Nzoia Sugar, Muhoroni Sugar, Chemelil Sugar and Sony Sugar commenced in May 2023 led by the Head of State.
Three models of disposing the mills were prepared jointly by the Ministry of the National Treasury, the Ministry of Agriculture and the economic advisory team at the Office of the President.
The models were Privatisation, Leasing and Contract Management, subsequently the Head of State approved leasing as the best model for adoption.
The Cabinet approved the leasing process and subsequently, Parliament passed the same vacating the earlier privatisation model that started in 2003.
Further Parliament approved the write-off of all the government debts totalling Sh127 billion owned by the said mills.
The Request for Proposals (RFP) was adopted as the best model of procurement, the process thus commenced and tender advertisements for the RFP were made on February 1, 2024 and was to run till February 29, 2024.
The International tender attracted more than 40 bidders but before the closure date on February 14, a stakeholder, namely Martin Nyongesa Baraza, went to court and successfully obtained orders to stop the process.
The matter has been fully prosecuted and is awaiting judgement.
During submissions it was found that the litigant misled the court claiming that it was a privatisation and sale process while the model was leasing, the matter is awaiting judgement but on notice.
The Attorney General's office had given an indication that the matter would be mentioned on August 8, 2024.
No further briefing has been given since then.
However, a meeting was held in Treasury on August 6, 2024, to kick start the process in anticipation of a favourable ruling.
