Queen V
JF-Expert Member
- Jan 19, 2012
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Possibility of establishing a multi-billion shilling cement factory in Kitui County by Dangote Quarries Ltd seems to have gone up with the wind.
This is after the company, owned by Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote, stopped limestone prospecting in Kanziku area and vanished.
Dangote Quarries had promised to put up a Sh34.8 billion cement plant in Kanziku with capacity to produce 5,500 tonnes of cement daily to rival a planned one by ARM Cement worth Sh26 billion in Kyuso Sub County. More than a year after the multinational pulled out of Kitui claiming to have completed phase one of prospecting, neither residents nor the county government have any information on their plans. The community from the limestone rich Kanziku area is now convinced that Dangote Quarries have lost interest in Kitui limestone investment. “We have lost hope in Dangote.
He is no longer in our minds. He is a wealthy man but his wealth is not benefiting us at all,” said a disappointed Francis Munyalo, capturing the mood of the residents. Mr Munyalo, a member of Ene Mali (wealth owners), a group of farmers whose land sits on massive deposits of limestone, said the community was now open to other investors.
Chrispus Mutinda, another resident said they were shocked by the sudden change of heart by Dangote, saying with such a huge investment, the entire community would have been pulled out of poverty.
“They just left us high and dry. We are totally in the dark about their plans,” said Mutinda, referring to the investor’s unexplained withdrawal in March 2015. Kitui County Chief Officer in charge of Environment, Energy and Minerals Investment Development Dr Muusya Mwinzi noted that the county government was also in the dark over Dangote plans.
“As far as I know, they have not communicated with us for a long time so we don’t know their plans. The last we heard from them is sometime last year when they claimed they were retreating to reorganise themselves financially,” Dr Mwinzi revealed. The chief officer said they were not aware if Dangote Quarries handed over its prospecting report to the ministry of Mining and Geology and what its findings were. “We are still trying to follow up on that although sometimes the ministry is reluctant to share information with us,” he said.
Dr Mwinzi stated that even when Dangote Quarries was on the ground, it had no physical address and its operations were ‘very opaque’ adding that it seemed to be a ‘faceless’ entity that engaged middlemen who would give scanty and unreliable details.
We tried to contact John Nzuki who in the past acted as the link between the community and Dangote Quarries but his phone was off. However, in an interview with this writer a month ago, Nzuki sounded non-committal on the possibility of the firm’s return to Kitui County, even suggesting that the community was at liberty to engage other investors. “You know this wealth (limestone) is like our daughter.
Any man who offers the best deal will get her,” he said. Portland Cement But what irks the Kanziku community more, especially Kyautunda area where Dangote Quarries scoured people’s farms while prospecting, is failure by the company to pay them disturbance fee as agreed. “We had agreed that each farmer be paid Sh30,000 as the company carried out limestone prospecting. They fled without paying even a single farmer. That’s a blatant breech of agreement and we are contemplating taking legal action,” said Munyalo.
Mr Munyalo lamented that out of disillusionment, some of the poverty stricken farmers had resorted to selling their land cheaply to ‘outsiders’ who stand to benefit more should the community land another deal with a different cement maker.
Source: Standard