@ppcheti
Lamu cotton farmers have questioned the status of a Sh100 million cotton ginnery that was to be revived by the county government before the end of 2020.
In June this year, the Lamu government announced it had partnered with the Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture Project to commence the construction the ginnery.
The ginnery aims to revive the struggling cotton industry at Sinambio in Lamu West.
The KCSAP is said to have already injected Sh20 million into the first phase of the project which was supposed to have been done and ready before end of 2020.
The county government equally formed a six-man committee including three engineers, two agricultural officers and one cooperative officer.
The team was to facilitate the architectural design and planning of the ginnery with the project said to be able to inject more than Sh1 billion into the Lamu economy.
However, as 2021 draws to a close, cotton farmers say there is no sign that the ginnery is even being built as the site remains unattended.
The ginnery would have been an important equation in the county's long-term cotton industrialisation agenda that seeks to improve cotton farming through mechanisation, value addition and marketing.
Lamu cotton farmer Michael Muriuki said farmers were concerned as to whether the ginnery would ever be actualised considering nothing is happening on site.
“Back in June they said we’re very close to breaking ground. The engineers we were told had completed the land topography survey, the architectural drawings and bill of quantities
"It was said they were compiling a report which would pave way for vertical infrastructure construction. But that hasn’t happened and we want to know why,” Muriuki said.
Lamu’s highest cotton producing areas include Baharini, Uziwa, Tewe, Hongwe and Wetemere, all in Mpeketoni division and some parts of Hindi and Witu divisions.
The crop is also grown on medium scale in Faza in Lamu East.
If the ginnery is ever achieved, cotton farmers in Lamu will be able to gin their own cotton right at their doorsteps.
Mpeketoni cotton farmer Elias Mwashome warned that denying Lamu cotton farmers such a project will destroy the sector which has for ages been at the verge of crumbling.
“We were told by December the ginnery will be ready for us to start selling and ginning our cotton there. We want to understand why is it taking so long,” Mwashome said.
Once complete, the project will feature a three-gin ginnery with capacity to process 20,000 metric tonnes of cotton fibre annually.
This will save farmers from unfavourable middle-men pricing while increasing the sector's value addition.
The ginnery is a component of the proposed Lamu Cotton Industry Park, approximated at Sh700 million.
The industrial park will also comprise of garment and fibre making.
Beyond cotton processing, the lint produced will help farmers target the local market with bandages, sanitary towels, towels and T-shirts which are majorly procured from foreign markets.
The seed cake from the cotton will also produce edible oils for the retail industry and animal feeds for residents and the national livestock industry.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
