National Assembly Minority leader Opiyo Wandayi has accused sugar cartels of plotting to take over sugar factories in Nyanza.
Wandayi said this will be resisted by the people within the region because they will not allow anybody to mess with the livelihood of their people.
He said there is an all-out effort by the cartels to take over the sector by installing managers of questionable credentials to run the milling plants, to use millers as a cover-up for the importation of sugar.
Wandayi said in the end, these millers will become shells and farmers will be left helpless once they run out of business through dumped imported sugar.
The Ugunja MP claimed that the latest targets in this shady business are two sugar factories where the appointment of the receiver manager was abruptly terminated on May 22 under very unclear circumstances.
"As has become the new normal, the receiver manager has been replaced by a person from an ethnic community that is suddenly emerging tops in every purported interview for public service jobs," he said.
Wandayi called on the county governments in Nyanza and Western to stand up for the people who elected them and protect their dignity and livelihoods.
He said it is a cause for worry that people from Nyanza and Western who are serving in this regime are silent on this determination by Kenya Kwanza to kill their livelihoods.
"We must call out members of our communities who want to sell our birthrights to Kenya Kwanza barons to save their jobs," he said.
Wandayi said those people are not just in sugar but they have formed companies and moved into gold mining.
He claimed the barons intent on the economic sabotage of Nyanza and Western communities are not just taking over the sugar sector but are moving into fishing and mining, taking over community lands, fishing spots and landing beaches without any reference to the locals.
"We call on our people to be ready to defend their livelihoods and resist these attempts to subjugate them," he said.
