Sugarcane farmers have been urged to buy shares in the planned privatisation of public sugar millers in order to safeguard their interests.
The Kenya National Sugarcane Farmers Union (KENSFU) deputy secretary Mr Atiang’ Atyang’ challenged cane farmers to go for shares when the debt-ridden State-owned factories are put up for sale.
He said this way, they would have influence in the running of the sugar sector whose ill state has pushed poverty levels to 70 per cent in the Nyando sugar belt.
Mr Atyang who spoke to this writer on a phone interview on Saturday said the government had failed to show good will in saving the sector, and it would be up to the farmers to come out in large numbers and shore up shares.
He expressed fears that a few wealthy individuals were buying all the stakes in privatised millers.
“We are against monopolisation. When a few people make all the decisions, they can willfully make decisions that hurt farmers. We are asking the State machinery to ensure this is not the case by limiting the monopolisation we are seeing in the Nyando sugar belt,” he added.
He opposed the scrapping of the Sugar Development Levy saying it would hurt funding for cane development.
He also called for an upward review of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Authority directive that millers pay 18 per cent interest for delayed harvesting of cane.