Cane farmers want representation in Mumias miller leasing deal

 

Sugar cane farmers have said they must be involved in any plan to lease the troubled Mumias Sugar Company to investors for revival.

Through the Kenya National Alliance of Sugarcane Farmers Organizations, the cane growers said they were in darkness over the leasing plans despite being key stakeholders. 

KNASFO chair Soul Busolo said receiver-manager KCB Group has issued no reports to farmers since taking over the company in September 2019.

“Before KCB tells us about what is happening at Mumias, an investor emerges and says that he is among the eight who have bid to run the factory; the next day he says God has sent him to rescue us,” Busolo said.

He said that farmers feel sidelined because no one has engaged them in the takeover plan. 

Steel tycoon Narendra Raval of the Devki Group withdrew his bid for the company on Thursday.

He said on Saturday that he was ready to take over the miller and restore it to full operations in one month if the politics around it stop. 

Busolo, a former Agriculture and Food Authority director general, said that any investor must tell the farmers how he was planning to engage them.

“Farmers should not be called upon to resume cane farming and supply to Mumias without information about how the process to pick an investor is arrived at. We demand to participate and contribute to the process,” he said.

“We need to know how sustainable the offer is, which can only be achieved through comparison of the offers. Who is this applicant and what’s their experience in the sugar sub-sector? How do they compare to known sugar names like Booker Tate and Illovo? Who are the other applicants? What’s their experience in the sugar sub-sector?”

He said that farmers want to know whether the investor will include them in the shareholding structure and assure them that he won’t rehire former employees implicated in swindling farmers of their dues in weights and pricing of cane, overpriced inputs and transport charges.

They also want to know whether farmers will be involved in the running of the factory, including offering them soft loans, negotiating input costs and cane pricing. 

Busolo said that only farmers can engage fellow farmers to get back to growing cane. 

Kenya National Federation of Sugarcane Farmers secretary general Ibrahim Juma said that though farmers want the factory to resume milling, they must be told the details of the takeover deal.

“We’re told that they want to lease the factory out for 30 years. How do farmers allow an investor to run a factory making profits for that period?” he said.

He said that one of the investors interested in the company has been paying farmers and some elected leaders to reject the deal instead of asking for details to see whether it's in their interest.

He said that it was ironic that invitations to run the nucleus estate, houses and the water bottling plant were open while those of the factory are shrouded in secrecy.      BY  THE  STAR