Monday, January 16, 2012

Problems at Portland need careful handling



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The management of East Africa Portland Cement Company is expected to return to office today. A flurry of meetings on Friday and Saturday resolved that the government would oversee the reinstatement of the suspended managers. Although there exists in court a dispute over management of the company part-owned by the public, a lot is going on that could plunge the cement production sub-sector into chaos.
Maasai morans last week threatened to block all the cement companies based in Athi River in Machakos county from mining raw material from Kajiado county. They were angered by the removal of EAPCC Chairman Mark ole Karbolo and other managers. A meeting chaired by Rift Valley PC Osman Warfa over the weekend resolved that the mining be allowed to proceed and the managers returned to office. Workers at the company have vowed to block the group, saying they want a new team at the helm.
The controversy, if not handled well, has the potential to spiral out of control and spread to other cement manufacturing companies. While interested parties await the outcome of a court case filed by acting Industrialisation minister Amason Kingi seeking to kick out the company's managers, order must be maintained at the plant and politicians prevented from making inlamatory statements. Investments worth billions of shillings and thousands of jobs are at stake.
Quote of the day: "By the time your life is finished, you will have learned just enough to begin it well." Eleanor Marx, socialist, writer, philanthropist and daughter of Karl Marx, was born on January 16, 1855.

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