Senate Speaker Kenneth Lusaka has asked newly-appointed Nzoia Sugar Company managing director Michael Wanjala Makokha to prioritise paying farmers.
The Speaker said sugarcane farmers are the producers of raw material to the factory, noting that it will be unfair for them to continue languishing in poverty because of non-payment of their dues.
"It is sad that the company crushes cane, sells and cannot pay its farmers. Things must change at Nzoia Sugar Company now that we have new management," said the Senate Speaker.
Last week, the board chairman of the cash-strapped sugar miller, Joash Wamang'oli, unveiled the new boss of the company.
Makokha replaces Michael Kulundu, who died in March 7, after being attacked by unknown people on January 2 in Bungoma town.
"I urge the new MD to work on a plan where farmers will be central on their operations. It is not fair for contractors and suppliers of other materials to be paid before cane farmers. The plight of the farmers needs to be addressed first,” emphasised the Speaker.
There have been claims that past regimes at the sugar factor have been giving priority to paying off other suppliers at the expense of farmers.
Speculations are rife that the suppliers give hefty kickbacks. Lusaka was speaking on Saturday in Bukembe East during the burial ceremony of Eric Wafubo, who died in a road accident last week along the Eldoret-Malaba road, after a car he was driving rammed into a tractor ferrying sugarcane to Nzoia Sugar Company.
Speaking at the same event, Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang’ula said the local leadership will resist any move by the state to privatise the company, which is the sole sugar factory in Bungoma County.
He asked the management of the company to work closely with local elected leaders, who he noted represent farmers, pointing out that this will be the only way problems facing the firm can be easily addressed.
