•Ruto said he will also revive Nzoia Sugar Company as he seeks to expand employment opportunities for Kenyan youth and farmers to get a place to sell their produce.
•The president said the new investor will be tasked with remitting Sh100 million every month to Kakamega residents to ensure they benefit.
Image: WILLIAM RUTO/TWITTER
President William Ruto on Thursday said he is going to get a new investor to run Mumias Sugar Company and restore thousands of jobs.
Speaking during his first trip to Western Kenya since his inauguration as President, Ruto said he will also revive Nzoia Sugar Company as he seeks to expand employment opportunities for Kenyan youth and farmers to get a place to sell their produce.
The president said the new investor will be tasked with remitting Sh100 million every month to Kakamega residents to ensure they benefit.
"The investor who will be tasked with running the operations of this Sugar Company should be ready to give Sh100 million every month to assist local development in the County of Kakamega," Ruto said.
He also said he will ensure that the nucleus land owned by Mumias sugar is well utilized for the benefit of residents.
"Over the years the government has been pumping millions of shillings into the Mumias Sugar company but it still fails to run effectively," he said.
"We have 8000 hectares of nucleus land owned by Mumias which the Kakamega people basically own. For years that we have had Mumias, apart from employment, the people of Kakamega have had no benefit. We have not built roads using the Mumias' money, we have not built hospitals. We are going to change that."
The president committed himself to meeting local leaders to chart a way forward in addressing the needs of the region.
Ruto’s remarks come at a time when Uganda-based Sarrai Group has been battling court cases over the running of the sugar mill.
Sarrai was announced of 20-year lease tender in December 2021 following a bidding process that saw other interested parties move to court to protest.
In April 2022, High Court ordered Sarrai to leave the premises and removed Ponangipali Venkata Ramana Rao as the Administrator of the company.
Kereto Marima was further appointed as the new administrator of Mumias Sugar Company and ordered Rao to hand over the company to Marima.
The judge said public interest demands that receivership that has yielded zero results takes a back seat and a professional administration of Mumias is given a chance.
"It would have been essential to even have a pre-evaluation of Mumias which would have informed a result price that would have achieved the purpose of paying off Mumias debts and release it from receivership and administration," the Judge ruled.
“The manner in which the leasing process was handled did not tally with what was expected of him as an administrator."
The Uganda firm, however, later obtained a court order allowing it to start operations.
In October this year, sugarcane farmers and former Mumias Sugar employees took to the streets to protest over unpaid salaries.
The also lamented over unkept promises which they said were not honoured yet made during the leasing process.
“Mumias Sugar requires your urgent intervention Mr President because people are being mistreated by a Ugandan. The dirty games being played in Mumias should not happen under your leadership,” Mumias Sugar Workers Union Chairman Patrick Mutimba said during the street demos in October.
Workers also questioned the controversial leasing of the Mumias Sugar nucleus land.
They claimed that more than 8,000 acres were appropriated for free.
“The average price of land in Mumias now is Sh700,000. Multiplied by 8,000 acres, the value is Sh5.6 billion but Sarrai is getting it almost at no cost,” Mutimba said.