The ongoing sugar conference will serve as public participation for the Sugar Bill currently before Parliament, National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula said on Friday.
Speaking while opening the meeting at Masinde Muliro University, he said the summit has brought together key players in the sugar industry and the resultant recommendations will enrich the Bill.
“Although Parliament is on recess, I have called a special sitting whose only two agenda is about sugar. The session will discuss the memorandum by the Executive to write off debts owed by sugar millers to government and the second and third reading of the Sugar Bill,” he said.
Wetang’ula said the summit brings together farmers, millers, researchers, elected and opinion leaders and government officials.
“Sugar is regulated world over but we made a mistake in deregulating the industry. Let’s stop the usual blame games. When you’ve a problem, you don’t look for whom to blame but the solution,” he said.
“Farmers should not give up. I'm a farmer who had abandoned cane farming but I’m ready to go back and make it work.”
He said participants should come up with a clear direction on how to control rogue players in the industry.
The event was attended by among others, governors Paul Otuoma (Busia), Fernandes Barasa (Kakamega), Anyang’ Nyong’o (Kisumu) and Kenneth Lusaka (Bungoma).
Also present were deputy governors Mathews Owili (Kisumu), James Gesami (Nyamira), Ayub Savula (Kakamega), Joseph Magwanga (Homa Bay), Jenipher Mbatiani (Bungoma) and Joseph Mahiri (Migori).
MPs Titus Khamala, Emmanuel Wangwe, Oku Kaunya, Morris Kakai, James Nyikal, Geoffrey Mulanya, Innocent Mugabe, Mary Emase, Jack Wamboka, Johnston Naicah, Clement Sloya, Fred Ikana, Elsie Muhanda, Nabii Nabwera, Bernard Shinali, Malulu Injendi, Christopher Aseka and John Waluke and a host of parastatal heads also attended the event.
Governor Barasa thanked President William Ruto for the commitment he has shown in reviving the sugar industry, adding that the summit should have been to celebrate the centenary of the sugar in the country, having been introduced in 1922 but unfortunately it’s still discussing challenges.
“The death of special purpose vehicles such as farmers’ organisations that facilitated farmers to access cheaper credit worsened the problems in the industry,” he said.
Barasa said the national government should transfer its shares in state-owned sugar factories to county governments because agriculture is a fully devolved function.
He said counties will be able to represent farmers' managements either as minority or majority.
“What we need to be talking about now is whether the Sh117 billion debts owed by state-owned millers that the government is seeking to write off are representative of all the six factories where state hold shares. When I checked last, Mumias was not part of them,” he said.
He said the leadership in the Lake Region Economic Bloc will seek audience with the President to follow up on the implementation of the recommendations of the summit which are supposed to enrich the Sugar Bill.
Nyong’o, who is LREB chairman, said the summit should not reinvent the wheel as what ails the sugar industry was captured in the report by the national sugar task-force presented to the government in 2019.
Savula apologised to Kenyans "for being part of elected leaders who participated in the creation of the crisis in the sugar sector".
"We want to tell Kenyans that we are sorry for disbanding the Kenya Sugar Board and want it back. We created an amorphous body known as AFA and that is where rain started beating us. We are the creators of the mess in the sugar industry,” he said.
Otuoma said the summit should address problems in the sugar industry once and for all.
“I’m seeing the same faces we have been interacting with on sugar matters and I hope they have something different. I hope this summit will be a turning point. Let’s be brutal with each bother,” he said.
Khamala said it was not an option for Western to be told to grow something else if sugarcane is not working. He said there must be clear attention for every cash crop.
Khamala said some millers use factories as godowns and bring in sugar from outside the country, repackage and sell to Kenyans.
“I visited one of the millers and they told me that they were only packaging 50kg sugar bags but when I went to check on supermarket shelves there were two kilos packs by the same miller, which means they were importing sugar," he said.
