Nairobi gubernatorial aspirant Peter Kenneth has warned city residents that the capital risks turning out like Mumias Sugar Company should they re-elect Evans Kidero for a second term.

“We don’t want Nairobi to be sugar-coated the way Mumias was and when he left it collapsed,” Kenneth said when he addressed the media in Dagoretti.

Kenneth will seek to unseat Kidero and become the next Nairobi Governor on a Jubilee Party ticket during the upcoming August polls.

Kidero and his successor at Mumias Sugar Company Peter Kebati, have previously been adversely mentioned in commercial, procurement and importation scandals that have sunk Kenya’s biggest sugar miller to its knees.

The Nairobi Governor was in the 2015 Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission’s List of Shame over the alleged loss of millions of shillings when he was the managing director of Mumias Sugar Company.

The governor is accused of processing legal fees amounting to Sh300 million paid to lawyer Tom Ojienda, who is currently a member of the Judicial Service Commission.

Swift response

However in a swift rejoinder, Kidero told Kenneth to stick to Nairobi.

He said Mumias Sugar Company made a profit of Sh14 billion when he was at the helm.

“Kenneth was assistant minister of Planning and wrote off billions of shillings of debt owed by tea and coffee industries. He did not do the same to the sugar industry and that is why there are problems,” Kidero is quoted to have told a local daily.

The governor instead said that Kenneth was an assistant minister of Planning and wrote off billions of shillings of debt owed by tea and coffee industries.

“He did not do the same to the sugar industry and that is why there are problems,” Kidero said.