Webuye Pan Paper re-opened

Written by Rosemary Wachiye 2011-10-23 22:25:00 Read 87 Times The long awaited revival of the Webuye Pan Paper factory has come, the factory is now officially running since Saturday night with two of its three machines running and smoke billowing into the air as the paper factory roared to life again. The factory's former workers were recalled in early last week but were surprised and left wondering if the revival of the paper factory was a mirage as the highly publisized re-opening that had been planned for October 17, failed to take place. Under the management of Dr. Wafula Muliaro,the factory started crushing logs on Saturday as he assured residents that the revival was for real and not political games. "I would like to tell all those who didn't believe it when I said it will start again, that I meant it and as you can now see it is working," said Dr. Muliaro.  In a spun of less than 12 hours since its restarting, the factory has managed to produce 40 tonnes of paper through the paper production machine number 3 which is half its average production per day that is normally 80 tonnes. "The factory is officially opened now we have managed to restart two of its major production machines and we believe that before the end of the month machine two will also be working," said Muliaro. He also stated that by November 10, 2011, all the three paper production machines in the factory will be restarted and fully running. "There is too much demand for paper now in the country and it will be good if we start producing, though I know the demand may be too high that we may not be able to satisfy fully but at least we will have reduced it," he said. Muliaro has re-assured that the factory has enough of the key raw materials in paper production which are trees and waste paper. He said they have acquired enough wood from the government owned forests and for now they have stored about 20,000 m3 of wood in the factory and have a contract of receiving another 300,000 m3 as they continue with operations. “The factory crushes only 750 m3 per day, and so far we have a stock of 20,000 m3 and another 300,000 m3 in the forest which will be able to sustain the mill, the wood we have is more than sufficient to ensure the factory runs for a whole year,” said Muliaro According to Muliaro Pan Paper has been on contract with government owned forests like Timboroa forest, Kiptagat and Mt.Elgon where it provides seedlings to them and facilitates the planting of the trees which after maturing are sold back to the factory at a subsidized price. He also stated that the transportation of logs from the forests to the factory will start immediately as they had already cleared with the transporters and that soon there will be a continuous flow of wood to the factory ensuring that the factory runs smoothly. Muliaro explained the reason why the factory had not restarted as planned on that day being the delay of the 480 tonnes soda ash that is needed for the paper production, which was delivered early on Saturday the October  22 after which they were able to restart the first machine. “ We have received 18 wagons of the soda ash and we are expecting 4 more wagons to arrive, since that was the only material we were expecting before we start and it has finally arrived, we started the first machine on Saturday night,” said Muliaro. The factory had been closed for three years and its re-opening has come as a blessing and relief to the workers to be recalled back to work. One of the recalled workers who is also the production manager a one Mr. Sifuna expressed his appreciation to the government for making it possible for the mill to run stating that as part of the management, they have put enough measures in place to ensure that all the needed equipment are in good shape for the running and materials are available to sustain its continuous running. He called upon all stakeholders to support its revival and through the good spirit he believes that the mill will never close down again. In 2010 on July 28, President Kibaki reopened the paper mill after two and a half years of closure, the plant, however, grounded to a halt after two weeks when three of the mills closed down, sending more than 400 employees who had just been recalled, back home As much as the factory has been restarted and the machines are up and running with paper being produced, what still holds back the big hope that finally this marks the end of unemployment to the former workers of the mill and that it will bring liveliness to the Webuye town, is that the factory has once been restarted before, and workers reassured of getting back to work permanently but it still closed down. The Prime Minister once stated during the burial of the deputy mayor of webuye Municipal council Mr.Timothy Karandini that the government had released Sh1 billion for the revival of Pan Paper in Webuye but a few issues including the change of name, technology and the supply of wood was still holding back operations. Have all this been taken care of? The Member of Parliament for Webuye Mr. Alfred Sambu recently stated at a prayer function that main reason of Pan Paper’s closure was corruption by the former management who have since flown out of the country. “This Paper mill closed down because of theft and mismanagement of funds by the former management who stole from panpaper and left the country,” he said. He said the main reason for forming the task force  to revive the factory was to ensure the factory is revived to be able to pay the debts owed to the short and long term lenders but complained that all the previous taskforce that were brought to revive it had failed and some of them like the most recent one headed by Mr.John Munguti even stole money from the factory amounting to Sh.56 Milion that they left before accounting for it. He blamed the Permanent Secretary of Industrialization Mr. Karanja Kibichu, for not taking action against them and instead of making them account for the funds he transferred them back to the ministry. “Munguti’s team left without accounting for the Sh.56 million that got lost during their reign, I pass the blame to the Permanent Secretary of Industrialization for not doing his job to ensure that they account for the money before the factory resumes under new management,” said Mr. Alfred Sambu. What remains unanswered is whether the claimed mismanaged funds which is the tax payer’s money will ever be accounted for? There have been two task forces before, one headed by Gatimbu followed by another one headed by Mr. John Munguti, but the mill’s main problem which is the huge debt owed to the long term and short term lenders was the main hinder towards the factory’s running, so has all this been cleared out too? The Permanent Secretary of Industrialization Mr. Karanja Kibichu affirming the premier’s word stated that the government had released Sh.600 Million, 200 Million meant for operation and the remaining Sh.400 for paying the Short term lenders. The Pan Paper Mills is still under receivership, and the government through the ministry of Industrialization has been holding talks with the short term lenders and the long term lenders and the Permanent Secretary in the Minisrty has assured that the government has set to pay to the Short term lenders and had an agreement with the long term lenders to restart the factory to be able to pay back the debt owed to them by the former owners of the factory.