Mumias sugar company entrance Gate.[ Photo/ Daily nation. ]
Mumias sugar factory has received a major blow after the Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) has been given the go-ahead to place the company's staff pension under suspension and freeze all their assets following its failure to pay Sh 97 million for retirement benefits and group life cover for its staff.
Mumias Sugar and its pension scheme ~ staff provident fund had filed an application before the high court to stop the RBA from appointing Roberts Insurance Brokers Limited as an interim administrator but the high court dismissed the application on Friday.
While issuing her judgment, High court judge Lucy Njuguna said that Mumias Sugar Company and Staff Provident Fund failed to provide detailed information on the kind of losses they will likely to incur if the interim administrator is allowed to run the pension scheme until all contributions have been regularised.
“Other than the allegations that they will suffer irreparable loss, Mumias Sugar Company and Mumias Sugar Company Staff Provident Fund have not established what loss they will stand to suffer if the execution of the decision does not stay. In any case, it is the employees who will continue to suffer loss if their contributions remain unremitted.”
“I find that the application is unmerited and the same is dismissed,” said Justice Njuguna in his ruling.
Mumias firm, however, argued that the administration was done before they were given fair hearing by the RBA and therefore the latest ruling has thrown its member into an array of confusion.