.... Energem whereby the Canadian firm bought 55 per cent of the Kisumu Molasses plant. Sources say that the Odinga family was paid over US$ 5 million (about Kshs 420 million) to relinquish the control of the molasses plant. The Odinga family had paid only Kshs 3.6 million for the property.
The Canadians also ploughed in millions of dollars to rehabilitate the plant and it is today one of the largest manufacturing concerns in the country employing hundreds of people and producing at least 60,000 litres of industrial ethanol for local consumption and export.
Ethanol from the Kisumu Molasses Plant is used as a fuel additive in east and Central Africa. Among other products coming out of the plant include yeast, carbon dioxide alcohol and related industrial products.
A valuation of the plant carried out three three years ago placed the Kisumu Molasses Plant at US$100 million (Kshs 7 billion). With the Odinga family owning 40 percent of the plant, putting the family’s stake in the plant in the region of Kshs 7.8 billion. The remaining five per cent shares in the plant are owned by a development trust on behalf of the local community.
Besides Kenya where Energem is in partnership with Raila in the Kisumu molasses plant business, now renamed Kisumu ethanol Plant, other African countries where Energem’s presence is significant include Sierra Leone, Sao Tome, Congo Brazaville, Angola. Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Chad and Central Africa republic.
Raila’s wealth at a glance
Company/Property
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Estimated Worth
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Spectre International Limited (the holding company for Kisumu Ethanol Plant)
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Kshs 7 billion of which Odinga family owns 40 per cent whose value is approximately Kshs 2.8 billion
|
East African Spectre (the gas cylinder manufacturing plant founded by Raila’s late father)
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Kshs 500 million
|
Raila’s family home in Karen Nairobi
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Kshs 50 million
|
Runda House
|
Kshs 15 million
|
Pan African Petroleum Company (the firm through which the Odinga family imports and distributes petroleum products)
|
Has had a turnover in excess of Kshs 500 million
|
Scheming that changed Raila’s fortunes
