Farmers sack KCC bosses - Kenya's dairy farmers charge Kenya Cooperative Creameries with fraud - Brief Article

Eurofood, July 1, 1999

More than 2 000 of Kenya's dairy farmers have dissolved the management board of Kenya Cooperative Creameries (KCC), paving the way for the establishment of a steering committee to run the giant milk body, reports The Daily Nation newspaper. The farmers unanimously demanded the arrest of the directors, claiming they were involved in the disappearance of millions of shillings belonging to the company and the illegal disposal of some of its assets. KCC is believed to owe farmers Ksh450m (??5.8m).

KCC will now be managed by a steering committee for the next three weeks pending the annual general meeting, during which a new board will be elected. Kenya's President Moi, who announced last month that his government would intervene in the crisis (see Eurofood, 17 June 1999, p 14), said he supported the farmers' moves against the directors. He said that the Nakaru and Eldoret KCC plants have been rendered unoperational as machines had been dismantled and parts sold.

STRING OF RESOLUTIONS

Meanwhile, the dairy farmers resolved that each of the 11 KCC plants would be managed autonomously by local farmers while the national board coordinated milk production and processing and marketing activities. Other resolutions unanimously endorsed by the farmers are outlined below:

* A rationalisation of the current KCC shareholding categories to reduce complexity and misunderstanding in membership;

* KCC management to be decentralised;

* Management to be committed to transparency and accountability;

* Management not to dispose of any assets without the consent of shareholders;

* The government should find ways of supporting KCC;

* A government-imposed ban on the import of milk and milk products;

* Former directors to be voted out, arrested and prosecuted.