Mumias farmers want cane firm board dissolved

Mumias sugar cane farmer reading some of the resolutions to Parliamentary Agriculture Committee during a meeting at MOCO grounds in Mumias on November 9, 2016. BY BENJAMIN SAKWA

The National Assembly’s Committee on Agriculture has been asked to disband the board and management of Mumias Sugar Company.

Cane farmers led by their representative Boniface Manda told the 12 members of the House committee to move fast and salvage the company.

Mr Manda, who read the farmers’ resolutions, accused Mumias Sugar Company of failing to give priority to cane growers.

Mumias Sugar Company posted a Sh4.73 billion loss for the year ended June 2016.

“Farmers want the current chairman to resign and have resolved that the company should have a new management, which should be less in number,” Manda said.

The farmers also want the miller to be paying farmers within a week after cane delivery and to give growers seed varieties that mature within 12 months.

“The KPMG report should be adopted and those involved in malpractices prosecuted. The annual general meeting should be held at Mumias and not in Kisumu as in the previous years,” he said.

INTERESTED IN ALLOWANCES

Farmers also complained about the company’s handling of grants, saying the bailout funds must be accounted for.

And speaking to The Standard, Bishop Beneah Salala of ACK Mumias Diocese accused the parliamentary committee of failing to give priority to farmers.

He said the committee was only interested in getting allowances instead of addressing the farmers’ grievances.

Committee chairman Kipsang Kemei assured farmers their grievances would be addressed within two weeks.

“The KPMG report has highlighted issues ailing Mumias Sugar Company. The report needs to be implemented and debts written off by the Government for the factory to run well,” Mr Kemei said.

Committee member Opiyo Wandayi (Ugunja) said the root cause of Mumias Sugar Company’s troubles must be identified.

“The report has clearly shown who looted the company. The sugar barons must be dealt with to end this crisis. The solution is not giving tokens but the Government should move with speed and write off all the debts for it to fully operate,” Wandayi noted.

Mumias East MP Benjamin Washiali asked the company’s management to account for more than Sh2 billion the company received from the Government.