The government rightly set out early in the year to sell off loss-making parastatals as a realisation that their continued support via cash from the Treasury is not sustainable.
And this week, the Treasury set the ball rolling by leasing out three sugar mills owned by the government.
The collapse of government sugar mills is always a perfect example as to why government should have a limited role in private enterprise.
We say so because private sugar millers continue to mushroom and apply for licences when government entities have long been shut down. And in the process impoverishing thousands of households that have for years staked their financial fortunes on payments from the millers.
But the government must privatise more parastatals quickly because Treasury boss John Mbadi looks to raise Sh150 billion from the sales of firms, which owe the exchequer a staggering Sh1 trillion from loans that have not been serviced. That trend can only end in one eventuality – failure.
It is key that the privatisation process goes through the Nairobi Stock Exchange so the public can have an opportunity to own part of these legacy business.
But even more importantly is transparency, because the sugar belt politicians have already raised the alarm about the sugar mills, which, they claim, were privatised without their involvement.
Openness will provide the much-needed buy-in from the public.
Quote of the day: “People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take”— American anarchist, political activist and writer Emma Goldman died on May 14, 1940.
