Cane theft could cost two sugar millers in Kakamega their licences

Licences of two private millers in western Kenya could be revoked should Parliament adopt a report on the findings of an inquiry into the challenges facing the sugar sector.

The parliamentary committee on Agriculture has recommended the withdrawal of milling permits of Butali and West Kenya Sugar companies, accusing the pair of initiating a vicious fight for control of the raw material access in the sugar belt.

The two, says the report, were licensed without providing evidence of sufficient raw material to guarantee their operations as is required in law, setting the stage for conflict.

“Licences for West Kenya Sugar Company and Butali Sugar Mills should be suspended until both millers prove they have developed sufficient cane to sustain their operations to reduce cane poaching,” reads the report by the committee and seen by Nation.

YEAR-LONG INVESTIGATION

Titled The crisis facing the sugar industry in Kenya, the report was compiled in November last year after a year-long investigation by the committee chaired by Mandera North MP Adan Noor.
This followed a petition to Parliament by a lobby group Western Development Initiative Association.

It had petitioned Speaker Justin Muturi in 2013 to order a probe into the woes facing the industry. According to the report, the committee also focused on illegal sugar imports, the roles of Kenya Revenue Authority, Kenya Ports Authority and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, in the sector.

“The genesis of cane poaching is attributed to the licensing of West Kenya Sugar Company and Butali Sugar Mills within close proximity to the already existing cane millers, with total disregard of the law,” reads the report.

In practice, development of own cane by millers — commonly known as nucleus estate — as well as contracted farmers is a precondition for licensing.

NO LONGER ATHERED TO

The committee, however, found that this precondition is no longer adhered to, a situation that had created wrangles in cane zones as new millers who were licensed unprocedurally encroached on contracted crop already established by existing firms.

Kenya Sugar Board, now a directorate under the Agriculture Food and Fisheries Authority and whose boss at the time, Mrs Rosemary Mkok, was questioned by the committee, also indicted West Kenya factory in sugar poaching.

Mrs Mkok told the committee that West Kenya was the main sugarcane poacher in western Kenya and the board had received complaints from neighbouring millers.

The former sugar board boss, who is the current head of the sugar directory, also faces the sack, should Parliament adopt the report in its entirety upon tabling by the committee. “The then Kenya Sugar Board Chief Executive Officer Rosemary Mkok should be relieved of her responsibilities for failing to discharge her responsibilities effectively in regulating the sugar sub-sector as per the existing regulations,” says Mr Noor in the report.

Mrs Mkok is on the spot for issuing an operating licence to West Kenya, in complete disregard of the law. The miller is said to have had no evidence of raw material supply upon its licensing.

Mr Noor says in the report that thorough investigations should also be carried out to determine the role the sugar directorate boss played in the registration of Butali Sugar Mills in complete disregard of the regulation on zoning.

Butali Sugar Company and its bitter rival West Kenya are located 10 kilometres from each other and have always been embroiled in a fight to control access to raw materials.