Prominent Nyeri billionaire and businessman - Peter Kuguru - has broken his silence on the ongoing battle for the Mt Kenya region between Deputy President, William Ruto, and former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga.
The tycoon, who has been out of the limelight for years, resurfaced pledging to support Raila in his fifth stab for the presidency.
Speaking in Nyeri on Thursday, November 18, Kuguru stated that the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader was the best candidate to succeed Uhuru. He urged him to heed the calls and address major grievances of Mt Kenya residents.
One of these, Kuguru stated, was the invasion of farms by wild animals. Farmers in Nyeri lamented that they were grappling with huge losses after monkeys raided their farms and destroyed young crops.
“We are in doubt as to whether we will reap our projected harvest. I call on the Kenya Wildlife Services to compensate the farmers for their losses. I also declare my support for Raila to lead this country and save farmers from untold suffering.
“I welcome Raila to Nyeri whenever he wishes to visit. He is a Kenyan and does not require anyone's permission to traverse any county. The people of Nyeri have resolved to support the handshake and the spirit it stands for,” Kuguru stated.
The two are longtime allies with their friendship spanning decades.
Kuguru lamented that farmers were losing billions of shillings to wild animals, a year after locusts invaded their farms and also destroyed their crops.
He appealed to the KWS to create a special force tasked with pushing the monkeys back to Mt Kenya.
On September 21, First Lady Margaret Kenyatta, called on conservation agencies to collaborate more with governments to curb human-wildlife conflicts. Margaret stated that Kenya had made significant gains in wildlife conservation, in recent years, because of greater stakeholder collaboration.
“If we want to solve our current challenges, more resources and practical solutions need to be adopted in our conservation efforts so that we can build a better future where humans and wildlife co-exist peacefully.
"I commit to adding my voice to advocate for more action in addressing the human-elephant conflicts," she pledged. The government, in July 2021, also launched a compensation fund worth Ksh500 million to ensure victims of the human-wildlife conflict were catered for.
Tycoon Kuguru resorted to farming after launching his company, Kuguru Food Company. In February 2020, he asked farmers to collect locusts which he then purchased at Ksh50 per kilogram.
He is renowned for launching and managing the now defunct Softa Bottling Company, which produced the Softa Soda soft drink.
“Our revenue was not as good as we wanted. Income was being offset by market costs. There was also the failure of the government to support local industries, and our very determined competitors used a lot of money to drive us out.
“The amount of money required to build Softa is billions of shillings. It is a big project- probably about Ksh2 billion to start,” Kuguru spoke on the drink which was a favorite among children in the last decades.
He also ventured into noodle production, bakery and confectionery, and once owned a Chinese restaurant in the Central Business District. Kuguru is also a miller and the Chairman of the United Grain Millers Association(UGMA).
