The licensing of Busia Sugar Industries could be a recipe for chaos in the region, Kakamega senator Cleophas Malala has said.
The Agriculture ministry last week through the Sugar Directorate issued BSI with a license after years of a legal battle with West Kenya.
The award of the license to the sugar miller came after Deputy President William Ruto toured the factory and promised it would be licensed to operate.
BSI deputy agricultural manager David Kitur said that the factory had contracted 18,000 cane farmers and is expected to create 1,500 direct jobs once it becomes operational.
Malala said the decision to license the new miller was ill-advised and will have far-reaching effects on the sugar sector’s stability.
He said that licensing of an additional miller when the industry is facing a serious deficit of raw materials will destabilise the industry in Western Kenya.
“The decision is going to make it difficult to carry out zoning. The task force on reviving the sugar sector will have to come up with recommendations that will protect public millers from unfair competition from privately-owned millers,” Malala said.
His sentiments were echoed by Kenya Sugar Plantation Workers Union secretary general Francis Wangara who said the new factory will create more problems than solutions in the troubled industry over availability of raw materials.
“When the sugar problem started in Western, farmers became disillusioned and uprooted the crop. The raw materials arenot enough to sustain five millers in the region,” he said.
Kakamega governor Wycliffe Oparanya earlier this month said that licensing new factories should be stopped to stabilise the sugar sector.
“The factories that exist already have a problem with raw materials and it’s only important that we first stabilise the existing millers instead of registering new ones,” he said.
However, Shinyalu MP Justus Kizito said that more factories would benefit the farmers as they will ensure competitiveness in the sector.
“What is needed is for the management of sugar factories to invest enough resources by buying the cane and paying farmers on time,” he said.