Lobby asks task force on sugar reforms to resume sittings now farmers are being paid

A farmers' lobby wants a task force appointed by President Uhuru Kenyatta to come up with a long-lasting solution to cane growers' problems to resume work now that farmers are being paid.

The Kenya National Federation of Sugarcane Farmers said the task force can start holding public participation meetings in the cane growing regions.

“We had petitioned the task force to make sure that farmers are paid their dues before any public participation meeting. Now that the government has honoured its promise by availing funds for the farmers, we are happy and ready to air our views before the task force," the federation's national deputy vice-chairman Meshack Shatimba said in Kakamega yesterday.

“Now that the government has started to pay money owed to sugarcane farmers in Western Kenya, the focus should be addressing other sugarcane industry issues as soon as possible,” Shatimba said.

The task force is co-chaired by Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri and Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya.

The team suspended public engagements in mid-January after some farmers threatened to start a parallel process overpay delay.

Late last year, President Kenyatta ordered the Agriculture ministry to relook at cane and sugar pricing mechanisms, review importation and taxation structures and come up with a consensus on the fate of State-owned millers.

Shatimba said that farmers fully supported the task force and asked it to also consider payment of farmers by millers seven days after the cane is delivered.

The lobby wants the team to introduce policies and regulations to govern both the millers and farmers.

The public forums are intended to resolve, among other things, zoning regulations, cane pricing and import rules that farmers and other industry stakeholders have long opposed.

Other issues of concern to the growers include payment for all sugarcane by-products like molasses, bagasse and filter press mud which have only been benefiting millers.

“We want the government to centralise the Sugar Directorate by moving it to Kisumu from Nairobi to serve farmers effectively. And we also demand the formation of an autonomous executive board comprising representatives of the farmers, millers, Sugar Directorate, Agriculture and Food Authority and the Ministry of Agriculture to discuss important sugar industry issues,” the federation’s deputy secretary general Simon Esechere said.

Esechere said at least two factories should form a cluster. Western has Southern region made up of Sukari, Sony and Transmara factories, Nyando Basin with Muhoroni, Chemelili, Soin, Kibos and Miwani factories while the Upper Western region has Nzoia, West Kenya and Butali sugar factories. The lower Western includes Mumias, Olepito and Busia sugar factories.

The Coast region has Kwale and Tana River sugar factories.