- “We are asking the President to fulfil his campaign promises of installing a new milling machine at the factory and address the issue of debts," Lusaka said.
- "Our forefathers donated 12,500 acres for Mumias sugar and 24,500 for Nzoia. If you privatise, someone will go away with our ancestral land," Khalwale said.
Image: HILTON OTENYO
Elected leaders in Western opposed the government's plan to privatise Nzoia Sugar Company among struggling state sugar corporations.
The leaders say the company, together with struggling Mumias Sugar Company, which is under receivership, should be revived and not sold.
They now want President William Ruto to fulfil his campaign promise that his government would procure a new milling plant for Nzoia sugar factory and source a new investor for Mumias.
Bungoma Governor Kenneth Lusaka, Senators Dr Boni Khalwale (Kakamega), Godfrey Osotsi (Vihiga), Wafula Wakili (Bungoma) and MPs Didmus Barasa (Kimilili), John Makali (Kanduyi), John Waluke (Sirisia), Majimbo Kalasinga (Kabuchai) and Bungoma Woman MP Catherine Wambilianga pledged to resist government attempts to sell the millers.
They also want the government to clear the debts Nzoia factory owes farmers and suppliers.
“We are asking the President to fulfil his campaign promises of installing a new milling machine at the factory and address the issue of debts. That is the only solution to resolving the problems facing Nzoia and Mumias sugar, not selling them off,” Dr Lusakas said.
Lusaka said that the people of Western want meaningful development and not empty rhetoric.
“Let the government be serious and revive the ailing sugar industry by doing the right thing, not privatising the sugar factories because this could kill the industry in this region," he said..
Khalwale said privatisation of the two sugar millers will render locals jobless as new investors will recruit other people.
"This is not out of disrespect for the President and the government. That is the little we have in the economy of the sugar industry," Khalwale said.
"Our forefathers donated 12,500 acres for Mumias Sugar and 24,500 acres for establishment of Nzoia Sugar. If you privatise, someone will go away with our ancestral land," he added.
Osotsi said the government wants to sell the millers through the back door.
“You have heard that they want to sell Nzoia and Mumias but they don’t want to involve Parliament. We are opposed to anything of that sort as the huge chunks of land where the two factories are domiciled do not belong to the government, it’s our land,” Osotsi said.
“Selling of the two companies will not happen under our watch,” he added.
Kanduyi MP John Makali said the mill at Nzoia was installed in 1978 and is now obsolete and inefficient. He said replacement of the mill was needed and not selling the parastatal.
Makali said Nzoia factory is the main source of livelihood for sugarcane farmers in the region “and selling it would amount to killing the economy of this region.
“We will not allow Nzoia Sugar to go the Mumias Sugar Company way,” he said.
Barasa said Present Ruto's maiden budget should ensure that farmers who have delivered sugarcane to the factory since 2014 are paid their dues in full.
Nzioa Sugar factory board chairman Alfred Khang’ati, the miller owes cane farmers Sh300 million.
Mumias Sugar Company was the largest sugar factory in East and Central Africa and controlled as much as 50 per cent of the market.
The miller produced about 250,000 metric tonnes of sugar annually. Mumias Sugar has an asset base of Sh15.7 billion and liabilities of Sh30.1 billion.
Kakamega Deputy Governor Ayub Savula has said that the county government will not allow the state to sell its 24 per cent shareholding in Mumias.
Savula said the government should instead transfer the shares to the county government to hold them in trust for farmers.
Nzoia factory is among 24 state parastatals the government plans to privatise for their financial turnaround.
They are KenGen, Kenya Pipeline Company, Kenya Ports Authority, Eldoret Container Terminal, Kenya Ports Authority Outsourcing of Stevedoring Services, Kenya Ports Authority Development of Berths, Chemelil Sugar Company, South Nyanza Sugar Company, Muhoroni Sugar Company (under receivership), Kabarnet Hotel, Mt Elgon Lodge, Golf Hotel, National Bank of Kenya and Consolidated Bank of Kenya.
Others are Development Bank of Kenya, Agrochemical and Food Corporation, Kenya Wine Agencies, East African Portland Cement, Kenya Meat Commission, New Kenya Co-operative Creameries and Isolated Power stations
The Senate Finance and Budget Committee has summoned national Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njunguna Ndungú over the controversial plan to sell state-owned firms without the involvement of Parliament.
The CS is expected to explain the plans that have angered the senators and triggered public outrage.
In the state-backed Privatisation Bill approved by the Cabinet last month, the proposed law gives the Treasury the approval to privatise parastatals without the approval of Parliament.
(Edited by V. Graham)