The woes bedeviling over 3,000 former workers of Naivasha based Karuturi flower farm deepened after they were served with a two month notice to leave the firm’s houses. The move is meant to pave the way for the sale of the farm’s assets by one of the local banks to recover over Sh1.8B debt following a ruling by the Supreme Court three weeks ago. Also on the line of sale is land where a primary and secondary school that the once giant rose producer used to manage. Following the move, the workers who are still waiting for their dues have called on the government to intervene, noting that close to 2,000 students would lose.
The highest court has given Stanbic Bank the go ahead to sell the assets of the farm in a bid to recover a loan that the farm owed it 14 years after it was closed down. At the height of its operations, Naivasha based Karuturi flower farm produced over 1m stems of roses daily making it the largest producer in the region. According to the workers representative Moses Maina, some of the workers had served the flower farm for close to 30 years before it was closed down. He added that the workers through their Sacco were owed over Sh22m which they had diligently served for years before it went down. “The receiver manager is aware of all these debts but he has kept quiet and instead issued us wit
h a two month vacate-notice,” he said.
This was echoed by Olkaria MCA Peter Pallang’a who said that the former workers were going through untold suffering as they waited for their dues. He termed the closure of the farm as a major blow to the economy of the region and hundreds of workers who were in darkness over their dues. Pallang’a wondered what would happen to the hundreds of students in Sher Moi Primary and Secondary schools who had even registered for the national exams. “We see some of the farm’s assets being sold by the receiver manager and we are wondering where this cash is going,” he wondered. Another worker Allan Owaro said that they had been issued with a two month notice as the receiver manager could not auction the assets while former workers were still in the staff quarters. “We have worked for this company for over 28 years and they now want to kick us out like dogs without giving us our dues,” he said. A community health worker Elizabeth Waithera termed the living conditions in the staff quarters as deplorable due to lack of water and poor sanitation.