The Kenya Sugar Plantation and Allied Workers Union now wants governors from sugar growing zones to buy shares on behalf of farmers as a way of empowering them.
A union official has told governors to find alternative ways such as buying shares for farmers and stop their obsession with the privatisation of sugar factories.
“Counties should instead buy shares for farmers and later deduct the cash from the farmers and channel it to the counties’ accounts,” said the Kenya Sugar Plantation and Allied Workers Union national secretary General Francis Wangara.
He warned the governors against claiming they were not consulted or involved in the privatisation process since many of the National Assembly members or governors were involved in the process previously, before they were elected to their current positions.
Wangara, who was speaking in Kisumu on Wednesday said it will be a recurrent thing since those who will be elected come 2017 will also claim they were not consulted.
The union official said the leaders were involved one way or another and the noble thing to do is to bring ideas on board to better the factories and not bring unnecessary demands.
Wangara said the privatisation process started in 2011 and is yet to be finalised.
He said commissioners visited all factories to meet stakeholders but before then they had met governors and senators in Mombasa and are currently undertaking the privatisation process according to the time table set.
“The matter passed through all the necessary steps including parliament approval and establishment of commissioners and it cannot be started afresh,” said Wangara.
He wants the factories to go to strategic stakeholders and not any politician since it will be riddled with corruption.
The secretary general asked governors to also bring on board other investors from other sectors for the sucess f the sugar sub-sector.
Wangara said private factories were doing better than parastatals and that is the way to go.