Parliament’s Trade, Industry and Cooperatives Committee has raised alarm over a secretive plan to sell nearly a third of East Africa Portland Cement (EAPC) shares to Kalahari Cement Limited, a move lawmakers warn could amount to backroom privatization at the expense of taxpayers and workers.
The Trade Committee, led by Hon. Benard Shinali (Ikolomani) and Hon. Marianne Kitany (Aldai), has blown the whistle on a deal that would hand 29.2% of EAPC shares — currently held by Holcim subsidiaries Cementia Holdings AG and Associated International Cement Ltd — to Kalahari Cement Limited. Once sealed, Kalahari would control a staggering 41.7% stake through its alliance with Bamburi Cement.
“This is theft in plain sight. Portland is a Kenyan jewel, owned by taxpayers and pensioners, yet it’s being flogged off in smoke-filled backrooms,” thundered Kitany.
EAPC Managing Director Mohamed Adan stunned MPs when he confessed that neither employees nor management had been informed of the sale. Workers, he revealed, are “living in fear” of mass layoffs.
“This isn’t just a transaction — it’s livelihoods, families, and communities at stake,” Adan warned.
MPs were further outraged that EAPC had not even considered buying back its own shares, despite a turnaround strategy showing improved cash flow. “Why let outsiders raid the company, only to think of buying it back later? Something rotten is going on,” fumed Hon. Wilberforce Oundo (Funyula).
The committee also discovered that Portland still operates under Articles of Association written in 1933 — a colonial relic that MPs say has left the cement giant wide open to manipulation.
Even more alarming, Kalahari’s links to Bamburi Cement — Portland’s fiercest rival — raise the spectre of a conflict of interest that could strangle the company from within.
With Kenyans owning a 52.3% majority stake through the National Treasury and NSSF, MPs vowed to fight what they branded “a betrayal of the people.”
“Let it be known — Portland will not be auctioned off behind closed doors. Parliament will not allow Kenyans to be sold out to shadow cartels,” the committee declared, promising a bruising battle ahead.
