Mumias East MP Ben Washiali has said the delay in releasing recommendations by the sugar task force on the revival of the industry is hurting it further.
President Uhuru Kenyatta announced the formation of the task force during last year’s Mashujaa Day celebrations in Kakamega.
The team that was co-chaired chaired by agriculture CS Mwangi Kiunjuri and Kakamega governor Wycliffe Oparanya was to come up with the best way forward for the revival of the ailing sub-sector.
Yesterday, Washiali said that recommendations by the taskforce could face challenges since the 2019-20 budget has already been passed.
“We want the report to be made public so that it can be implemented. It should have come out early because some recommendations had financial implications which needed to have been captured in the budget,” he told the Star on the phone yesterday.
Washiali said that implementation of recommendation particularly after approval of the budget will be difficult because even supplementary budget only addresses shortfalls in budgeted for votes.
The MP said that the sugar industry was getting worse than it was when the president formed the taskforce.
He asked CS Mwangi Kiunjuri and Governor Wycliffe Oparanya to use some of the many meetings they hold with the president to hand over the report for action.
“We don’t know whether it’s the president delaying the report of the chairmen,” he said.
Another task force on the revival of the ailing Mumias sugar company formed by Oparanya is yet to present its findings.
Washiali defended the Oparanya team saying it's part of the recommendations of the Sugar taskforce given its special nature, being a largely private listed company.
“The only problem I had with the team was its composition because it comprised of county government employees and MCAs who may not have had a grasp of the challenges facing the sugar sector,” he said.
Mumias is currently shut over huge debts owed to suppliers, banks and state agencies and lack of sugar cane occasioned by poaching of her cane by rival millers.
