Governor Barasa faults Sarrai Group as cane shortage bites millers
WOES: Kakamega Governor Fernandez Barasa has accused the Sarrai Group, which is currently operating the Mumias Sugar factory, of orchestrating a deliberate cane shortage scheme in the country, leading to low utilisation of the miller’s 15,000-acre nuclei facility.
Barasa said the firm is part of the problem currently facing the sugar sector. Speaking in Matungu over the weekend, the governor said Sarrai Group has utilised a mere 500 acres of Mumias Sugar’s 15,000 estates, leading to the current cane shortage, and subsequent shutdown of cane processing factories situated in the sugar belts.
Massive potential
The governor noted that while Sarai has been in the industry for one and a half years not much has been done to turn around the factory, citing ethanol, water bottling facility and Cogen are yet to be utlised despite massive potential.
“Sarrai has only invested 10 per cent of what is expected in cane development. Mumias Sugar has 15,000 acres, na ukienda kule (if you go there) he has only planted cane in 500 acres,” said Barasa.
The latest development comes after orders to shut all the sugar factories for three months, by the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) due to an acute shortage of raw materials, in a move set to increase the cost of sugar countrywide. The decision to suspend sugar milling was announced by AFA acting director (Sugar directorate), Jude Chesire.
“We are doing this to protect our sugar firms from total collapse as a result of acute shortage of cane,” she said.
The closure orders took effect on July 14, 2023 and are expected to last till November 30, 2023, to allow more sugarcane to mature amid the rising sugar crisis.
This comes even as the High Court appointed Harveen Gadhoke as the new administrator of Mumias Sugar for a period of one year, after the expiry of the term of Kereto Marima. Justice Josephine Mongare made the move after an application by lawyer Jackline Kimeto pointed out that the term of Marima expired in April.
Kimeto who is seeking Sh76 million from Mumias Sugar further warned that the miller’s assets were at risk of being pilfered and creditors might not recover their costs.
The Kakamega County boss has also taken issue with Sarai for failing to address the welfare of both current and former workers at Mumias Sugar, leading to the death of 30 workers at the factory due to depression caused by lack of payment of 2.3 billion shillings debt owed to workers
‘I would be happy if we have a sugar conference so that we can talk about issues affecting Mumias Sugar and all the other sugar factories in the region. I know the former employees of Mumias Sugar about 1000 of them are owed almost Sh2.3 billion, and just the other day I got statistics that we have lost almost 30 former employees from Mumias Sugar. They are dying because of depression,” said Fernandez.
Barasa who had previously issued an ultimatum for Sarrai Group to either improve its management on Mumias Sugar or ship out is now calling for a national dialogue.