Sugarcane growers in South Nyanza complain that they didn't get engage in the planned disposal of State-owned millers. they said the team is not “actively involving them in the “design and deliberations on sale of the factories”.
“Everything seems to be moving speedily without our involvement,” Mr Ezra Okoth,
Kenya Federation of Sugarcane Farmers secretary general, told the media in Migori Town.
Mr Okoth said the sale plan must first address the interests of growers in Nyanza and western Kenya.
“We will not accept a situation where mills are hurriedly sold to foreigners who will frustrate our farmers and employees. Growers and their county governments must be allowed to buy substantial shares,” he said last week.
Mr Okoth said farmers need “adequate preparation to buy a share of the multi-billion shilling factories. We ask our governors to stand firm on this matter because sugar industry woes will affect millions of livelihoods in Nyanza and western regions,” he said.
Governors from western Kenya met in Kisumu last year where they resolved that sale of five sugar companies be stopped and negotiations held afresh.
They accused the privatisation commission of planning the sale of Muhoroni, Miwani, Chemelil, Nzoia and Sony Sugar factories without following the law.
But the sale will be a hard one, given the heavy indebtedness of the millers and the state of their equipment. Nzoia, for example, has a Sh37 billion debt, Miwani owes Sh28 billion, Muhoroni Sh27 billion, Chemelil Sh5 billion and Sony Sugar has dues amounting to Sh3 billion.
The commission plans to complete the sale of five State-owned
sugar mills by August 2018 in order to seperate cheap sugar from regional economies and remove the most important excuse,the government plans to sell 51 per cent stake in the companies to strategic investors and reserve another 24 per cent for farmers and employees.
