A past sugarcane harvesting exercise. Photo/courtsey
The sh800 million promised to sugar millers is yet to be released by the government.
President Uhuru Kenyatta had made the promise to two sugar millers during his political campaign in western Kenya nearly a month ago
Unfortunately, the move has crippled millers’ effort to pay farmers’ dues. Nzoia owes farmers Sh263 million in arrears as at May 31 while Mumias has an outstanding debt of close to Sh1 billion to date.
The companies attributed the delay to government bureaucracy.
“We have not received the cash but we are still waiting for it to enable us to clear the dues that we owe our growers,” said a senior official at Nzoia.
This has caused millers to struggle financially in the recent years and their woes have been worsened by an acute shortage of raw material that has seen most of them operate below capacity, forcing Sugar Directorate to more than double the imports to meet rising demand.
Kenya usually imports sugar ranging from 8,000 metric tonnes to 15,000 metric tonnes a month but the directorate increased the volumes significantly to 100,000 metric tonnes due to the reduced local supply.