Trying to unravel the intrigues within the sugar industry in Kenya would surely be a Kafkaesque experience. In Franz Kafka’s novel, The Castle, the protagonist tries to gain access to government offices in order to get a permit. He is taken from office to office and referred to this and that official. It is an exhausting circumlocutory exercise without an end. Eventually, the search becomes an end in itself, its purpose long lost in the maze and mystery of bureaucracy.
To try and find out why we import sugar when we have countless sugarcane farmers and sugar factories would take you through endless dark tunnels of intrigue, mystery and pathological greed. Except for the poor farmers and consumers, all the other players play with a card below the table and dagger behind their back. The sugar industry could be a game changer in the economy of western Kenya and the country as a whole, yet that is not incentive enough to sort out the mess with the greatest possible urgency. But make no mistake, in this mess, millionaires are born.
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A while ago, one of the players in the sugar industry was abducted in gangland fashion. As his car was approaching a junction, it was hemmed in by an unmarked vehicle. He was pulled out of his vehicle and bundled into the other car. His own car was left in the middle of the road.
This was in broad daylight. The whole spectacle was captured on CCTV. After a few days, it turned out that the abductors were police officers who wanted to question the occupant of the vehicle presumably about the mess that is the sugar industry.
Nothing is wrong with police wanting to interrogate people about alleged misdeeds. What is gravely worrisome is the mafia-style operation. Surely, the police could have summoned the subject to the nearest police station.
Alternatively, they could have gone to his house, identified themselves, and proceeded to make the arrest. Or they could have gone to his office in marked police cars and asked him to accompany them to the police station. If those options were not available to the police for whatever reason, they could have used a normal police car to pull him over and ask him to follow them to the police station in his vehicle.
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During the Kanu regime, dissidents would be arrested by dozens of gun-toting plainclothes police in unmarked vehicles. They would be held incommunicado before they were brought to court, escorted by dozens of police vehicles flashing their lights and blaring sirens.
The corridors of the courts would be cleared. By contrast, murderers and rapists were escorted to court by one or two police vehicles. Surely, these draconian security measures were not out of fear that the handcuffed and badly tortured man would escape. The show was meant to intimidate citizens. In similar fashion, the recent abduction in a city street was meant for the eyes of citizens.
Source: The East African
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