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The land on which the Kisumu molasses plant stands was handed to the Odinga family firm after the intervention of President Moi, it was revealed yesterday.
The 240 acres was offered to the Odingas' company Spectre International by former Lands commissioner Sammy Mwaita just five days after Kanu and the now defunct National Development Party, headed by Mr Raila Odinga, entered into a partnership that eventually led to a merger of the two parties under Mr Moi.
Ministry of Lands records show Sh3,699,750 was offered as the price for seven parcels of land each with its own title.
Now, the Government is investigating exactly how Spectre International got the land.
But Dr Oburu Oginga, who heads the firm, said yesterday that the company had, in fact, paid Sh10 million in lieu of rates, rent and stamp duty before the sale was concluded, last year. Documents obtained by the Nation indicate the parcels of land were offered to the company on January 11, 2001.
They were hived off for horticulture (26.2ha), industrial use (39ha), housing (38.13ha), health (2.2ha) and education (6.5ha).
Questions have been raised whether the approval of the official receiver of Kenya Food and Chemical Corporation Ltd was sought and granted for the sales.
"There is no record of official valuation of the property by the chief government valuer", states a document prepared by an official of the land commissioner's office.
"What appears to have been processed for sale is empty land and there is no record of how the physical infrastructure investments on the stalled project were sold and for how much," it added.
The official said: "The land deal was a direct allocation and there is no indication of other offers being sourced in the absence of official valuation".
Spectre International had applied for the land in February 18, 1999 but the request was rejected.
The commissioner then noted the land could be allocated only to the official receiver of the Kenya Chemical and Food Corporation � the molasses complex.
But undeterred, Spectre sought President Moi's intervention on April 7, 1999. It was not until January, the following year, that the land was handed over.
Documents indicate that the titles to the land were prepared in favour of Spectre on February 3, 2002 for a 99-year lease, backdated to September 1, 2001.
Yesterday at a Press conference in at Parliament building, Dr Oginga declined to say how much Spectre International paid to the Kenya Commercial Bank, which had auctioned the plant.
He said: "I am not ready to answer that question. This was a debt owed to KCB, and therefore, you should refer the question to them. The proof of the payments is on Hon [Maina] Kamanda. He is speaking falsehoods by saying we paid nothing."
Mr Kamanda, assistant minister for Urban Development, has claimed the Odinga family took over the land where the molasses plant stands and that they paid nothing for the plant itself.
But Dr Oginga insisted: "It should be made clear that the plant, machinery and moveable assets of KCFC were sold by the receivers as agents of KCB, the debenture holders, who were recovering their loans, a matter in which the Government had no part".
The Bondo MP, flanked by several MPs from Nyanza, said the family had no interest in Spectre International, having pulled out last November.
Dr Oginga, who is Mr Raila Odinga's elder brother, said Spectre International was acquired by the Canadian private investors and Kisumu Development Trust, although he and his sister Ruth were board members.
He denied that the Odinga family had interests in the Canadian firms named by Mr Kamanda as major suppliers to the ministries of Roads and Public Works, headed by Mr Odinga, and Energy.
Mr Kamanda said the majority shareholder in Spectre, Energem International, had supplied bitumen, oil and other products to the Roads and Energy ministries.
Energem and its associated companies, Diamond Works and Petroplus Africa, were given the contracts in June, last year, he said and promised to give details.
The assistant minister told journalists in Nairobi that he had written to Ethics and Governance permanent secretary John Githongo asking him to investigate the matter.
He wanted Mr Githongo to establish how Spectre had come to own the plant and the land on which it stood.
The letter was copied to civil service chief Francis Muthaura, the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, the CID and the Attorney-General.
The plant, valued at Sh1.9 billion, could not have cost Sh5 million as claimed by Dr Oginga, he said, and challenged him to produce receipts.
The letter by the lands commissioner allocating the land to Spectre International was written five days after President Moi had made a highly publicised visit to Kisumu.
The Odinga family was defended by Lands assistant minister Orwa Ojode, who said the plot on which the Kisumu molasses factory stood had been acquired regularly.
In Parliament the controversy resurfaced when an MP sought a ministerial statement.
Mr Elias Mbau (Maragwa, Narc) asked Energy minister Simeon Nyachae to clarify claims that the Canadian firm Energem had also taken over five other local firms, which he did not name.
The MP asked the minister to explain how the Canadian firm had acquired shares in the plant and also how and why it was licensed to be the sole supplier of bitumen to the Ministry of Roads. | 
