Mumias woes deepen as saboteurs set cane on fire
Men clear a burnt cane field in Mumias Sugar Zone.
What you need to know:
- The fires that have been set in the past three weeks are suspected to be the work of saboteurs who are not keen on seeing the factory revived.
Management officials say the arsonists were targeting cane in the expansive nucleus estate.
Jaggery operators in Mumias East constituency have been accused of poaching the cane for production of brown sugar.
There seems to be no end in sight to troubles bedevilling Mumias Sugar Company after suspected arsonists set on fire its 92.47 hectares of cane.
The fires that have been set in the past three weeks are suspected to be the work of saboteurs who are not keen on seeing the factory revived.
The burning of the cane is likely to disrupt plans by the receiver manager to restart milling operations next month.
Management officials say the arsonists were targeting cane in the expansive nucleus estate.
The cane being targeted is over-mature due to delayed harvesting after the miller suspended operations in April 2018 due to reported shortage of raw material at the time.
Frustrating revival efforts
Mr Ponangipalli Venkata Ramana Rao, the receiver manager, had initially complained that influential individuals, including politicians, were frustrating the revival efforts of the miller.
“There is a scheme by powerful individuals to kill the efforts we are making to revive the sugar factory. Currently, they are spreading misinformation claiming there is nothing we are doing,” he said.
According to Mr Rao, the miller is preparing to install vital equipment for sugar milling.
The rotors were procured from a supplier in South Africa, but there was delay in delivery due to disruptions caused by Covid-19. The supplier had been expected to ship the equipment and deliver it to the miller this month.
This would have enabled the miller to start preparations to install the spare parts needed in the processing plant and carry out a trial run of the mills before starting milling early next month.
In an interview last week, Mr Rao said: “We are still hoping the situation will normalise soon so that we can have the spare parts shipped in for installation to enable us restart sugar milling.”
Ethanol production
Jaggery operators in Mumias East constituency have been accused of poaching the cane for production of brown sugar.
The jaggery operators are reported to be sneaking into the sugarcane farms at night to steal the raw material.
The miller has offered Sh50,000 reward to anybody with information that can lead to the arrest of the arsonists.
“We have put in place a plan to address the challenge. We have deployed security guards who are working with police officers to safeguard the cane from the arsonists,” said acting human resource manager Mr John Shiundu. The miller has entered into a deal with Nzoia Sugar Company from Bungoma County to have the cane harvested. The miller is sourcing molasses from the rival for ethanol production.
Mr Rao said he had resumed ethanol production after sourcing molasses from Nzoia, Butali mills, Muhoroni and Busia sugar companies.
He said he was focusing on ethanol production to generate adequate revenue and plough it into sugar milling operations.
