Plans to privatize Webuye Pan Paper underway - Sambu

Written by Rosemary Wachiye 2011-06-20 15:21:00 Read 231 Times

Webuye Constituency MP Alfred Sambu. The fate of the stalled Webuye Paper factory will be known in a month’s time, area MP Alfred Sambu has said. This announcement has come at a time when most of the former workers stay at home jobless with a few trying to engage in small businesses to sustain their daily lives. Mr. Sambu said that the wrangles that have marred the paper factory would be addressed and a solution arrived and thus reviving the factory. He explained that the cause for the delay in the revival was because Kenyan laws have made it difficult for the government to revive. He added that the previous owners and shareholders of the company were foreigners hence giving the government a hard time to pay their debts. “The owners of Pan Paper mills were foreigners and the laws of the country protects foreign investors in the country hence it has been hard to revive the company and easily do away with the former owners, it’s now that the government is working towards making the company a private entity,” said Mr.Sambu He said they are working on privatization of the company through bringing in a government receiver who will be able to run the company on behalf of the government making it a private entity. “It has been hard for the company to remove the current receiver of the short term lenders and put in place long term lenders from the government,” said Mr.Sambu “The deal; to privatize the company is already in progress done and that the company fulfills all the conditions, the only thing left is the signing the required documents and I can assure you in a month’s time all this will be taken care of,” said Mr.Sambu He also stated that for their to be development in the region, industrialization ought to be given priority, advising the webuye residents not to only depend on paper alone since there were other upcoming industries in the area. “we have the Nzoia water project that is underway, the pan paper heavy chemicals factory, the youth’s ethanol project that is aims to provide energy in the country and save on the fuel problems being experienced,” said Mr.Sambu. “All this projects are after providing job opportunities for the jobless and the children coming out of schools in search for employment,” added Sambu. He further said that creating job opportunities is a guarantee towards curbing the rise of insecurity in the region as it offers a chance to keep people busy and stop them from indulging in criminal activities,” said Mr. Sambu.