Blow to Mumias as 800 hectares of cane are burnt
Cane on fire at a Mumias Sugar Company plantation. PHOTO | ISAAC WALE |
What you need to know:
- Claims of sabotage surface.
- Milling of sugar drops since the burnt cane can only produce molasses.
At least 800 hectares of sugarcane belonging to Mumias Sugar Company have been destroyed by fire.
The company’s head of agriculture development, Mr Boniface Makhandia, said close to 3,500 tonnes of cane had been burnt by Tuesday.
“It means over 50 per cent of our cane has been destroyed since December last year,” he said.
Bunge la Haki na Usawa lobby group chairman Boniface Manda and Mumias East MP Benjamin Washiali led a group of stakeholders in a tour of the factory to establish claims of sabotage.
Mr Makhandia and company head of operations Josephat Asira told the group that the cause of fire was yet to be established.
'NOT CONCLUSIVE'
According to Mr Asira, workers were not happy with the scrapping of some of their allowances. He said leakages of sucrose had been identified in the system but the problem had been rectified.
“We have had problems in our operations. Partly because of the burnt crop, we have been made to crush but it is not conclusive to say there is interference,” he said.
Mr Makhandia said the management would compensate farmers whose crop was burnt. However, he said only burnt crop delivered to the factory within 72 hours would be accepted.
The company is crushing 6,500 tonnes of cane every day, which is below its capacity of 9,000 tonnes, according to Mr Asira.
He said production of sugar dropped drastically since burnt cane being crushed was rich in molasses but not ordinary sugar.
Mr Washiali asked the management to implement restructuring with cane farmers in mind.
“Most farmers have been rendered poor and need to be assisted to benefit from the subsidised fertiliser arrangement by the Ministry of Agriculture,” said Mr Washiali.
On the other hand, Mr Manda called for investigations into claims that some employees were sabotaging factory operations at the expense of farmers.
Mr Makhandia said the company security team, in collaboration with police, was investigating circumstances under which the thousands of tonnes of cane were burnt.
