Barely two weeks after the troubled East African Portland Cement (EAPCC) roared back to life, the cement factory is facing closure due to lack of raw materials.

Members of Maasai community have closed access to the cement factory

Hundreds of workers at the plant now while their day in animated conversations, discussing current affairs and politics instead of producing cement.

“There is nothing to do. We spend the whole day idling here,” says Petos Koyra. Mr Koyra says since workers resumed work last week after paralysing its operations following reinstatement of Managing Director Kephar Tande and board Chairman Mark ole Karbolo by court, they have been idling around the premises.

Road blocked

The 300-acre Kabini quarry is a no-go zone for company tippers. The material cannot be transported to the Athi River cement plant.

“Excavation is on but we are not allowed to haul them out of the quarry by the youth manning the entrance,” said a driver at EAPCC.

And when The Standard On Sunday visited the site on Friday, we found hundreds of youth had erected a roadblock to the only entrance to the quarry, using boulders and tree trunks with nails on them.

The rowdy youth check vehicles heading to the quarry. After learning of our mission, they refused to talk to us and threatened to beat us up.

“We cannot talk to you because we do not deal with the media,” said an agitated youth. An attempt to plead with them to give us access failed. They warned of dire consequences if we did not turn back.

“We are warning you to leave immediately or else you will regret,” said another. With the warning we had to go back to Sultan Hamud to seek police escort. But we were also unsuccessful, as the area OCS said there were no officers at the station to escort us.

But The Standard On Sunday learnt the group blocked the access after acting Industrialisation Minister Amason Kingi suspended Mr Tande and Mr Karbolo.

The court has since reinstated the two, but there is an ongoing court case to determine whether the company is a State corporation or private company.

On normal operations, there would be about 50 tippers ferrying limestone to the cement factory. Koyra, a technician, said for the last two weeks, they have been depending on the stocks delivered last year, which they have exhausted.

“We have been running on low capacity, but we are not out completely. We have shut out the kiln,” he said. In the company

“But without limestone, it is not possible to produce cement,” said Esther Njeri.

This scenario has forced the employees to put off the kiln as they wait the management to resolve the issue after they tried to use bissil limestone that damaged the kiln, according to a confidential correspondence in our possession between company managers.

“From internal inspection and tests on caked material, it is evident that the problem is caused by the raw materials due to the hard burning condition occasioned by lack of kabini limestone.

Please recall we experienced these calciner blockages in December 2010/January 2011 when we ran out of Kabini limestone,” reads the confidential mail from the production manager.

The Standard On Sunday has in its possession a letter to Tande and other managers, from the production manager, warning of possible closure of the factory.

“It is a fact our kiln cannot run on 100 per cent bissil limestone. This is why the highest composition we have ever used is 60 per cent kabini and 40 per cent bissil. For this kiln, the most desired mix is 100 per cent kabini limestone.

Short supply of material

The level of magnesia and the mineralogy of bissil limestone are not fit for the kiln system.

We would need to modify the pre-heater and calciner system to run on 100 per cent bissil limestone continuously. It is very costly due to the heat load needed, which ends up damaging the equipment,” reads a confidential the production manager signed.

The manager also warns that pozzolana, another raw material in the manufacture of cement, was in short supply because the community around Ngurunga quarry had also blocked access to the site. “Also please note that we shall be grounded on cement milling in two days due to lack of pozzolana. The supplier cites community issues in Ngurunga. Kindly take up the issues together if possible,” reads the letter.

In his response, Tande says he was in touch with the community.
“Ok this is noted. I am in touch with the community for an early resolution of the raw materials issues,” reads the Tande memo.

When reached for comment yesterday, Tande said he had resolved the issues with the community, which had started allowing their trucks to collect materials.

“I spent the day at the quarry and I am glad the community has allowed our transporters to collect raw materials. I can assure you the work will normalise next week. The area DC also talked to the community and things will start moving,” he said.

Meanwhile, the court yesterday ruled that the cement factory revert to its former signatories effectively making null and void the inclusion of board chair Mark ole Karbolo and Jane who has since resigned following our expose.

By Alex Kiprotich

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