Oldest tourist hotel faces auctioneer's axe over Sh380, 000 court award

Sunset Hotel in Kisumu (PHOTO: FILE)

KISUMU, KENYA: Kisumu's  Sunset Hotel- one of the oldest hospitality outposts  in Western Kenya could lose all its  movable assets  over a Sh 380,000 salaries  standoff  with two former employees.

A workers lobby has received the greenlight to auction all moveable assets of the State owned tourist hotel that sits by the shores of Lake Victoria.

The Kenya Hotels and Allied Workers Union (KHAWO) has obtained orders from Kisumu’s Labour Relations court to sell off at a public auction as much property of Sunset Hotel as it can to raise Sh386,884 awarded to Veronica Onyango and Moses Ochieng.

In court and auctioneer papers seen by the Standard, the union put Sunset’s furniture, electronic equipment, vehicles and other moveable assets on auction notice on April 6 after failing to settle award in December as ordered by the court.

The KHAWO’s western Kenya Executive Secretary Chadwick Oloto said the hotel had failed to honour pledge to make the payment by end of January.

“We have already engaged an auctioneer – Eshikhoni Auctioneers – with the role of recovering the money. And they gave Sunset a week from April 6 to make the payment or swoop in and dispose its property to recover the amount,” he said.

The 40-year old facility is co-owned by the National Government through Tourism Fund Corporation and County Government which owns about five per cent.

The General Manager Joseph Oduor however ruled out a possible auction of property, saying efforts were being made to settle the award.

He said the loss making facility was weathering a storm “but things are under control and we are working on it.”

He said the two casual labourers were rendered redundant by falling fortunes that forced it to cut costs through layoffs.