Mumias gets Sh500m loan from State to clear debts

By ROBERT WANYONYI

MUMIAS, KENYA: Cane farmers contracted to Mumias Sugar Company (MSC) have reason to smile after the Government announced a Sh500 million loan to the sugar firm to clear all its outstanding debts.

Announcing the latest bail-out, a programme that has already been extended to other sugar companies, Industrialisation Principal Secretary Wilson Songa said problems bedeviling Mumias are also being felt in all other sugar firms.

Speaking during a tour of the factory yesterday, Dr Songa announced that talks to have the funds released to the company from the Government through industry regulator Kenya Sugar Board have been fruitful and that the move will see Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture, Felix Kosgey, tour the firm today to issue a cheque.

Sugar sector

“Our only appeal is to local leaders to support and appreciate what the management is doing to address the problem, which is not only being felt here but everywhere in the sugar sector,” Songa said.

The PS noted that sentiments expressed recently by a section of leaders from the area threatening to lead residents in storming the factory and flushing out its managers were uncalled for.

“Everyone must understand there are problems in the sugar industry and in the case of Mumias, the problems are not of the firm’s own making as it has to cope with the matter of illegal poaching of its cane.”

He said the Government is determined to streamline operations in the sugar sector that will ensure that sticky issues like cane poaching, commonly practised by some new firms, are ironed out.

He also announced that the measures will cushion local sugar firms against cheap sugar imports into the country to enable them remain competitive and venture into new fields of productivity.

Songa praised MSC for venturing into the fields of ethanol generation and water production in spite of the stiff competition being witnessed as a result of dwindling raw materials.