Haya ndio maamzi ya bilionea Aliko dangote.soma zaid.

Possibility of establishing a multi-billion
shilling cement factory in Kitui County by
Dangote Quarries Ltd seems to have gone
up with the wind.
This is after the company, owned by
Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote,
stopped limestone prospecting in Kanziku
area and vanished.
Dangote Quarries had promised to put up
a Sh34.8 billion cement plant in Kanziku
with capacity to produce 5,500 tonnes of
cement daily to rival a planned one by
ARM Cement worth Sh26 billion in Kyuso
Sub County. More than a year after the
multinational pulled out of Kitui claiming
to have completed phase one of
prospecting, neither residents nor the
county government have any information
on their plans. The community from the
limestone rich Kanziku area is now
convinced that Dangote Quarries have lost
interest in Kitui limestone investment. “We
have lost hope in Dangote.
He is no longer in our minds. He is a
wealthy man but his wealth is not
benefiting us at all,” said a disappointed
Francis Munyalo, capturing the mood of
the residents. Mr Munyalo, a member of
Ene Mali (wealth owners), a group of
farmers whose land sits on massive
deposits of limestone, said the
community was now open to other
investors.
Chrispus Mutinda, another resident said
they were shocked by the sudden change
of heart by Dangote, saying with such a
huge investment, the entire community
would have been pulled out of poverty.
“They just left us high and dry. We are
totally in the dark about their plans,” said
Mutinda, referring to the investor’s
unexplained withdrawal in March 2015.
Kitui County Chief Officer in charge of
Environment, Energy and Minerals
Investment Development Dr Muusya
Mwinzi noted that the county government
was also in the dark over Dangote plans.
“As far as I know, they have not
communicated with us for a long time so
we don’t know their plans. The last we
heard from them is sometime last year
when they claimed they were retreating to
reorganise themselves financially,” Dr
Mwinzi revealed. The chief officer said
they were not aware if Dangote Quarries
handed over its prospecting report to the
ministry of Mining and Geology and what
its findings were. “We are still trying to
follow up on that although sometimes the
ministry is reluctant to share information
with us,” he said.
Dr Mwinzi stated that even when Dangote
Quarries was on the ground, it had no
physical address and its operations were
‘very opaque’ adding that it seemed to be
a ‘faceless’ entity that engaged
middlemen who would give scanty and
unreliable details.
We tried to contact John Nzuki who in the
past acted as the link between the
community and Dangote Quarries but his
phone was off. However, in an interview
with this writer a month ago, Nzuki
sounded non-committal on the possibility
of the firm’s return to Kitui County, even
suggesting that the community was at
liberty to engage other investors. “You
know this wealth (limestone) is like our
daughter.
Any man who offers the best deal will get
her,” he said. Portland Cement But what
irks the Kanziku community more,
especially Kyautunda area where Dangote
Quarries scoured people’s farms while
prospecting, is failure by the company to
pay them disturbance fee as agreed. “We
had agreed that each farmer be paid
Sh30,000 as the company carried out
limestone prospecting. They fled without
paying even a single farmer. That’s a
blatant breech of agreement and we are
contemplating taking legal action,” said
Munyalo.
Mr Munyalo lamented that out of
disillusionment, some of the poverty
stricken farmers had resorted to selling
their land cheaply to ‘outsiders’ who
stand to benefit more should the
community land another deal with a
different cement maker.
Source: Standard