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Moshi businessman takes back coffee plantation
2006-01-19 09:01:07
By Jackson Kimambo, PST, Machame
Members of the Kyeri and Shari primary societies and Uswaa Mamba Cooperative Society, who own the Silverdale & Mbono farm in Hai, Kilimanjaro Region, have named Fiona (T) Ltd Company, as legitimate investor of the farm.
Over 2,000 members of the societies announced their decision yesterday during a joint general meeting held at Shari village in Hai District.
Hai District Cooperatives Officer Ruben Masamu, attended the meeting.
Among other decisions reached at the meeting were the termination of the Farm Board and formation of a new one, comprising six members from each society.
Members also unanimously denounced British national David Stewart Meddleton, as investor of the 500-acre farm and accredited it to Fiona (T) Ltd, a company owned by famous Moshi businessman Benjamin Mengi.
The Chairman of the meeting, who is also the Chairman of the Shari primary society, Bashiri Shoo, gave the sacked board a two- week ultimatum to hand over office to the new board.
He also gave the installed board two months to audit books of the farm and report to the general meeting, warning that whoever would be found guilty of fraud and sabotage of property would be taken to task.
He expressed his disappointment over destruction of coffee trees that Fiona (T) Ltd, had worked very hard to raise and take care of.
Reading a report at the meeting earlier, the secretary of the sacked board, identified only by one name as Lema, said the farm was cleared and only part of it was planted with grapes. The rest was abandoned.
’The Fiona Company made efforts to plant new coffee trees covering about 40 acres, and major achievements were realized, making it a farm to emulate. But now, the farm has been turned into an abandoned bush,’ said the report, in part.
It said that inspection done on the farm had revealed that over 75 coffee trees were harvested without the consent of the board as stipulated in the contract.
Lema also noted that in the year 2004/05, when the farm was under Sterwat Middlestone, the Silverdale & Mbono coffee factory and a building that was used in drying coffee had been demolished, including 15, out of 25 houses.
Machines in the coffee factory were also lost in questionable circumstances, he said.
A sequence of invents had prompted respective villages to form a probe committee, which in the end recommended that the Briton should bear responsibility and compensate the loss.
Basing on the situation on ground, members of the societies concluded that Sterwat Middlestone was unable to run the farm and they transferred its ownership to a local investor.
The Briton, Middlestone (56), appeared before Resident Magistrate’s court in Moshi recently, to answer two counts, including one of issuing a fake cheque for US$ 7000, to the Fiona (T) boss, Benjamin Mengi.
In the second count, the Briton, together with Abel Edwad Ngoja, 33 were charged for allegedly conspiring in forging contract documents of the farm.
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