Sugarcane farmers have vowed to go to court to stop all sugar imports, until the 2022 Comesa quota is gazetted.
This follows a media report, which revealed the sugar directorate exceeded the imports limit set by the National Treasury last year, by 102 per cent.
This is despite a significant increase in production of the commodity.
According to the reporting, data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics shows the directorate issued permits that allowed the importation of 426,000 tonnes against the 210,000 tonnes limit, put in place for duty-free sugar.
Kenya Sugarcane and Growers Association secretary general Richard Ogendo on Tuesday said they are alarmed by the matter.
He said this was despite the fact that they had written to the sugar directorate to gazette the quota and they refused.
“We shall be heading to court to stop all sugar imports until the quota is gazetted as per the regulations,” Ogendo said.
"We are heading to June and the directorate is reluctant to gazzette the deficit."
“The industry is at risk in the months that we are heading to and something must be done,” Ogendo added.
The official said they will also write to Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission to carry out a lifestyle audit on top official's over the matter.
Last December, the farmers association called for a new audit on the country’s sugar deficit.
They claimed the outdated data and the shortfall risk is facilitating higher import volumes at the expense of local producers.
The association said the annual deficit remains static at 200,000 metric tonnes, despite the number of operational factors doubling to 10 in the past few years.
They said the deficit ought not to be higher than 50,000 metric tonnes going by the daily crushed cane volumes of more than 10,000 tonnes.
They association however said this can be abused to justify the importation of duty-free sugar.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
