Troubled Mumias Sugar Company has become the new battleground among the feuding billionaire Rai brothers after Jaswant Singh Rai, the chairman of Rai Group, joined other bidders to try to wrest a lucrative leasing contract from his younger sibling –Sarbi Singh Rai.
The rift in the Rai family became public last year when a case pitting the siblings against each other was filed in court, lifting the lid on the silent fight to control their late father’s multi-billion shilling estate.
Jaswant on Tuesday tabled a new set of figures to back his claims to having been the highest bidder, challenging the 20-year lease handed to Uganda-based Sarrai Group, run by his brother.
He made the application to join the case before Justice Wilfrida Okwany arguing that his company, West Kenya, placed the highest bid but receiver-manager Ponangipalli Rao allegedly awarded the deal to the lowest bidder, Sarrai Group.
Jaswant now wants the receiver to explain how he settled on his brother. He says his bid was for Sh36 billion yet Mr Rao settled on Sarrai with a bid of Sh6 billion.
Through Senior counsel Paul Muite, Jaswant said the receiver does not have the legal mandate or the professional expertise to make any findings on competition issues in Kenya or make any assessments on market share in any sector in Kenya.
“The figures and analysis produced by the 1st defendant in the said replying affidavit are imaginary and based on conjecture and hypothesis,” he said in an affidavit.
Further, Jaswant argues the rival has no track record of sugar production in Kenya whatsoever and that it is a company whose financial viability and technical ability has no record in Kenya. On the other hand, West Kenya is a well-established Kenyan company with a track record of sugar production in Kenya.
The West Kenya owner says the lease to Sarrai was actuated by other factors other than the best interest of the shareholders and creditors of the company.
He claims that the elimination of West Kenya at technical evaluation was not a matter within the receiver manager’s legal competence and accuses Mr Rao of usurping the powers of the Competition Authority of Kenya.
Mr Rao has, however, defended the leasing process, saying it was done per the law.He said his role in the evaluation was not simply to check what figures had been inserted by the bidders as they were and not interrogate them in any way and that the […]