Kitinda Dairy in need of Sh140 million for revival

BUNGOMA: Kitinda Dairy Farmers Co-operative Society in Bungoma County, that was famous in the late 1980s and early 1990s, for being the powerful milk processing plant that served the whole of East Africa, needs Sh140 million to be fully operational.

Kitinda Dairy Manager Bonventure Masibo said the factory has had challenges ranging from poor management by past leaders, to obsolete machines.

Speaking yesterday in his office, Mr Masibo said for the firm to be fully operational, it needs funds for new machinery to be purchased and installed.

"The new machine will help us process milk products because we have enough milk in this region. Farmers are willing to bring us raw material but the available machines are a total let down," said Masibo.

Kitinda Dairy was started in1957 as a station for controlling animal diseases, but was later turned into a centre for transporting milk to other processing plants.

In 1986, the Government in collaboration with the Finish government commissioned the plant through a programme dubbed 'rural dairy management' in a three-year renewable contract. "Finland was offering us its engineers to work on the machines, after which they would leave after recouping their profit. However, the Finish investors left in 1989 after the Government declined to renew the contract because of politics. It was at that time that multi-party democracy was being born in Kenya," said Masibo.

He said during the three-year tenure of the Finish investors, it used to process 16,000 litres of milk daily and had more than 9,000 members.

After the investors left, the board of management which, was led by former Bungoma District Commissioner William Changole, failed to run the factory, leading to its collapse in 1995. Its machinery broke down and spare parts could only be secured from Finland.

"The same year, the management agreed to borrow Sh2 million from a bank to help revive the plant, but it was all in vain and by 1995, the money had accrued to a tune of Sh54 million," he said. The management decided to lease the plant to PK Bhatia in 1999 for 10 years but he also met the same challenges. After three years, he run at a loss amounting to Sh9 million, which he owed the management, and this made him declare himself bankrupt and the debt was eventually written off by the Government.

Board Chairman Pridgeon Barasa said they decided to revive the plant in 2013 after years of mismanagement to help restore confidence in dairy farmers.

He said the plant currently receives more than 50 litres of milk per day, which they pay promptly at Sh40 per litre. He added that the move has made farmers have confidence in them. "We have about 645 farmers but only 300 of them deliver milk to the plant daily and receive their payment promptly," said Mr Barasa.

He praised the county government for purchasing a new cooler with a 5,000-litre storage capacity, milk cans, one electrical weigh sealing machine as well as clearing their Sh400,000 electricity bill.

Barasa noted the county assembly had allocated Sh6 million towards the revival of the plant in the last financial year but they are yet to receive the money.