The Kenya National Federation of Sugarcane Farmers has urged the government to immediately implement sections of the Sugar Act that do not require the establishment of further structures.
Federation deputy secretary general Simon Wesechere said the Kenya Sugar Board should implement requirements for sugar research and the Sugar Development Levy.
“We expect that the National Treasury will immediately authorise the Kenya Revenue Authority to deduct four per cent of sugar sales in the country and remit it to the SDL fund to support farmers in developing sugarcane,” he said.
“This money will support the sensitisation of sugarcane farmers so that we can achieve adequate cane production to sustain local sugar production,” he added.
Speaking in Mumias town, Wesechere said farmers expect a functional Sugar Research Institute to be established to ensure the production of quality seed cane that will enhance overall production.
The federation is engaging with farmers to ensure they elect trustworthy individuals as directors when elections for the revamped Sugar board are held.
KSB is in the process of preparing a register of sugarcane farmers that will be used during the director elections.
“They wanted us to use the millers' registers, but we refused. We are trying to ensure that sugarcane farmers are not led by individuals who are not sugarcane farmers themselves,” he said.
The agency will hire enumerators to physically visit sugarcane-growing areas to accurately determine the number of farmers before the register is compiled.
He added that these registers will be returned to the farmers for validation before the elections take place.
“We would rather take our time and end up electing the right people to steer the industry than rush and end up with an unsuitable board,” he asserted.
Farmers feel that the privatisation of state-owned sugar millers was being hurried for selfish reasons and should be slowed down, as they fear losing key stakes.
He said farmers envision an arrangement where investors are entrusted with management turnaround to ensure productivity without affecting core resources such as land and other assets.
“We know that some individuals have developed an appetite for the resources these factories possess, including land. We are aware that the investors being presented are fronts for senior government officials and politicians,” he alleged.
“We know that their aim is not cane milling but using the factories for the importation of sugar under the guise of milling,” he concluded.
