Nairobi — An inter-ministerial committee will be formed to review and resolve ex-KCC workers' unpaid Sh204.4 million terminal benefits and MAZIWA Sacco dues.
The committee will comprise the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, the Ministry of Cooperatives, and the National Treasury.
"The Committee should be tasked to collate, audit, verify, authenticate, and validate the claims and recommend whether the same should be settled and to what extent within reasonable timelines," Ministry of Cooperatives CS Wycliffe Oparanya said, quoting an advisory from the Attorney General's office.
"That upon conclusion of its work, the petitioners should be engaged in an out-of-court settlement with a view to finding an amicable solution to the impasse, and a notification of the outcome should be submitted to the Senate," he added.
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Former KCC employees' woes started in 1999 when the creamery was placed under receivership by the Kenya Commercial Bank, the debenture holder at the time.
As a result, private individuals acquired KCC's business and incorporated it into KCC (2000) Limited after winning a bid from the receiver-manager, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
However, a few years later, in 2003, the state acquired all shares in KCC (2000) Ltd and renamed it New KCC Limited, converting it into a state corporation.
The workers had earlier been dismissed after participating in an industrial action called by their union.
They later sued the creamery and won the case, but by then KCC Ltd had already been liquidated.
"Subsequently, New KCC Ltd filed an appeal against the High Court decision at the Court of Appeal under Civil Appeal No.191 of 2018. A three-judge bench on 10/7/2020 held that New KCC Ltd was not liable for the liabilities of KCC Ltd, which included the terminal benefits and unpaid Sacco shares of the said claimants," Oparanya explained in a letter submitted to the Clerk of the Senate.
"However, notwithstanding the above and the absolving of New KCC Ltd from the said liabilities in accordance with the law, the Appellate judges implored upon the Attorney General's office verbatim: 'Having said so however, and legalities aside, we hold onto the hope that the Attorney General will find it in him to advise Government to honour its word and pay the 1st respondents who have suffered long'."
