• Malala claims governor has set aside Sh10 million for task force whose credibility is questionable.
• Says Oparanya should explain what befell task force he formed in 2014 before talking of a new one.
Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala has termed attempts by Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya to revive Mumias Sugar Company as "a political mind game'.
Oparanya has announced he will take over the miller and appointed a 10-member task force led by county secretary Jacinta Adhiambo to come up with recommendations on how best to revive Mumias.
Yesterday, Malala said Oparanya is not genuine in his latest initiative but was playing political drama with the lives of thousands of people.
“We all want Mumias to be revived but people should not take advantage of the current state of the miller to make political capital out of it,” he said.
He asked Oparanya to explain what his government did with recommendations of a task force he formed in 2014 to look into the problems bedeviling the sugar sector before making any new move on the miller.
“He is a member of the sugar task force formed by President Uhuru Kenyatta and which Mumias is part of and he should tell us what recommendations of the team were before forming another task force to drain taxpayers’ money,” he said.
Malala said that Oparanya had set aside Sh10 million for task force whose credibility is questionable.
He said the team is comprised of MCAs, CECs and chief officers without knowledge in sugar matters and were only out to earn allowances.
Oparanya was hard pressed in his first term to explain the whereabouts of Sh200 million his government gave to a private company to pay farmers. The money which was to form a revolving fund was disbursed without regulations as required by law.
Speaking in Mumias town last week, Oparanya said he had summoned the management of the company through the National Treasury to discuss its revival.
Earlier, acting Mumias MD Isaac Sheunda rubbished Oparanya’s attempt at reviving Mumias. He told Oparanya that Mumias is a private listed company and his purported takeover was a mission in futility.
Company chairman Ken Ngumbau in a paid up advertisement last week said the company was open to work with anyone but in a structured matter.