Form task force on sugar reforms, farmers tell Uhuru

Suspected contraband sugar at Menengai Oil Refineries warehouse in Nakuru on June 27, 2018. Sugar farmers have warned that the ongoing parliamentary investigation into the presence of contraband sugar in the country will not help address the challenges facing the sector if they are not involved. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • On Monday last week, two committees of the National Assembly started public hearings on the contraband sugar.
  • CS Kiunjuri said the sugar is among the contraband goods worth Sh1.2 billion that will be destroyed this week.
  • The farmers have also complained that the absence of sugar regulations has led to cane poaching.

Sugar farmers have warned that the ongoing parliamentary investigation into the presence of contraband sugar in the country will not help address the challenges facing the sector if they are not involved.

This comes as the farmers under Kenya National Federation of Sugarcane Farmers (KNFSF) petitioned President Uhuru Kenyatta to form a taskforce on the sector’s reforms and revival.

On Monday last week, two committees of the National Assembly – Agriculture and Trade, Industry and Cooperatives – started public hearings on the contraband sugar, which is feared to contain heavy metals that are harmful to human health.

MINISTERIAL STATEMENT

The hearings came after Samburu West MP Naisula Lesuuda sought a ministerial statement following claims by Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i that the sugar in the market is laced with mercury and copper, among other metals.

In the petition to President Kenyatta, KNFSF CEO Francis Waswa has highlighted the entry into the market of contraband sugar as well as excessive and irregular imports of sugar as challenges that have seen local sugar milling companies close down.

UNATTRACTIVE

“Sugarcane farming has become so unattractive to local farmers that the majority are uprooting their cane and opting for other crops. All contraband sugar seized should be destroyed and criminal charges preferred against its importers and negligent public officers,” Mr Waswa said.

While appearing before the two committees on Thursday last week, Dr Matiang’i said that the government is holding about 1.4 million bags of contraband sugar.

According to the Interior CS, the sugar is among the contraband goods – fertilizer, fruit juices, and tomato sauce ketchup – worth Sh1.2 billion that will be destroyed this week.

The bags were impounded in various points across the country as smugglers of the commodity planned to repackage it and sell it to the millions of unsuspecting Kenyans.

LICENSING

Further, the federation wants licensing to be undertaken through the consultation and concurrence of both levels of government and that importation of sugar be restricted to the provisions of the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa) free trade agreement.

It is estimated that at least 150 tonnes of contraband sugar gets into the Kenyan market through the porous 700-kilometre-long border with Somalia.

The farmers have also complained that the absence of sugar regulations has led to cane poaching, high debt portfolio and farmers’ arrears, which Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri has also identified during a recent meeting with industry stakeholders in Nairobi.

The others are obsolete technology, staff salary arrears and non-remittance of deductions, poor corporate governance, lack of sector funding and excess sugar importation.

FORENSIC AUDIT

Even as the farmers urged the government to intervene, Mr Kiunjuri noted that his ministry will carry out a management and forensic audit of public mills to give confidence to potential partners, give short term capital injections as well as debt write offs.

“The national and county governments and The Privatisation Commission will collaborate in developing the roadmap for revitalisation of the public sugar companies. They include identification of transaction advisors and strategic partners,” Mr Kiunjuri said.

The CS also wants a multi-sectoral team appointed to review the legal and regulatory framework and pay attention to the issues of cane poaching and the need for zoning as well reintroduce the sugar development levy to facilitate cane research, cane development and infrastructural development.