Machakos Senator Johnston Muthama said the national government should hand over the company to the public if it has been defeated to effectively manage the firm.
“We as leaders object privatisation of firms and their property, but if the government is not in a position to manage them then the public can,” said Muthama.
Muthama said they were ready to buy cattle locally and sell their products internationally to make the company run more effectively.
He said privatization of the factory was ill motive citing the Athi River’s KMC plant as a target to land grabbers.
Muthama said Kambas should not be belittled in this nation by taking away what rightfully belong to them because they are not 'small'.
He said Kenyan leadership is marred with corruption, theft and money laundering claiming Machakos County had been adversely affected by the vice.
“The Kenyan economy can grow if the vices are gotten rid of, the Jubilee government has failed to deliver all its promises,” said Muthama.
Muthama faulted the National Lands Commission’s chairman Muhammad Swazuri for recently visiting Governor Alfred Mutua in his Machakos office over the release of the controversial land under custody of East African Portland Cement Company in Athi River town.
“Everybody has been invading on Machakos land because of the wanting county leadership,” said Muthama.
Mavoko MP Patrick Makau said 7,500 hectares out of the 13,500 hectares of land belonging to Portland must be reverted to Mavoko squatters because the company had exhausted all raw materials they required for cement production leaving it idle.
Makau said the presidency should intervene into the matter so that Mavoko residents be given the land to resettle desperate squatters, “the poor must be fought for,” he said.
He said it was unfair for the president to consider issuing land to squatters from other parts of the country as he recently did in Mombasa County while those in Machakos were forgotten.
Muthama said he will not sit back and watch as property belonging to factories in Ukambani were being grabbed at the expense of the needy natives.