Audit keeps sugarcane farmers in longer wait for Sh2.6 billion

Farmers will wait longer to receive dues amounting to Sh2.6 billion for sugarcane delivered to public millers, Agriculture Cabinet Secretary (CS) Mwangi Kiunjuri has said.

The CS said on Wednesday that the government has established a committee to audit farmers who are owed before any payment is made.

AUDIT

The CS noted that the audit is aimed at preventing the challenges witnessed during the payment of farmers who supplied maize to the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB).

“I have already written to the National Treasury to avail the funds,” Mr Kiunjuri said, in reference to the payment ordered by President Uhuru Kenyatta during this year's Mashujaa Day celebrations in Kakamega.

“On the other hand, we have formed a committee to verify the claims - whether the people making them are genuine farmers or not. We also want to know whether the farmers owe these factories money.”

The ministry will start paying the farmers as soon as the committee completes the audit.

“I plead with farmers to allow us to go slow on this matter so that we don’t get it wrong. We want to be so thorough that no ghost farmer is paid.”

He spoke in his office during the inauguration of the 17-member Sugar Industry Task Force, which is expected to revitalise the sector racked by challenges ranging from low supply, poaching, obsolete technology, a high debt portfolio and excess sugar importation.

OPARANYA'S PLEA

Mr Kiunjuri is expected to tour North Rift and Western regions and address both maize ands sugarcane farmers on the sticky issue of payments.

The CS spoke in response to a call by Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya, who challenged the ministry to heed to the president’s directive and start paying farmers their arrears for the sake of the sector's revival.

“We need to start paying the farmers as ordered by the president. We must carry out an audit as quickly as possible and ensure farmers are paid, without further delay, to encourage them to go back to sugarcane growing," Mr Oparanya said.

In his Mashujaa Day address, President Kenyatta ordered the CS to form the task force to look at the challenges in the sector.

He also asked Mr Kiunjuri to ensure all monies owed by State-owned sugar factories are paid, but only after a thorough audit.

TEAM'S TASKS

The task force co-chaired by Mr Kiunjuri and Mr Oparanya has 30 days to submit its report, with specific deliverables, once it is gazetted by Attorney General Paul Kihara.

The CS has forwarded the names to the office of the attorney general in hopes of gazetting before Monday.

The team will review the policy, legal, regulatory and institutional framework of the industry; past, present and emerging challenges and the value chain, tasks that will involve research.

It will also undertake an absolute and comparative assessment of the industry’s competitiveness in the East African Community, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) and the world.

PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS

The team will also analyse the roles of different stakeholder segments and recommend ways to collaborate with the national and county governments to develop the sector.

Mr Kiunjuri said the government hopes it will offer practical solutions to for the problems bedevilling the sector.

“The government envisages that through the implementation of the recommendations of the task force, stakeholders in the value chain will realise value from their endeavours, the challenge of the current un-competitiveness of the industry," he said.

Members of the task force include Governors Okoth Obado and Anyang Nyongo (Council of Governors), Ms Janerose Omondi (privatisation commission), Mr Benard Otieno (public millers), Mr Jayantilal Gopal Patel (private millers), Dr Ken Ngumbau (private millers), Ms Caroline Lentupuru (Intergovernmental Relations Technical Committee) and Mr Patrick Omutia (Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council).

Others are Mr Zakayo Magara (Ministry of Agriculture), Mr Solomon Odera (Agriculture and Food Authority), Mr Solomon Kitungu (National Treasury), Mr Emmanuel Wangwe (National Assembly), Mr Francis Waswa (Kenya National Sugarcane Federation) and Ms Beverly Lamenya (the attorney general’s office).

The Senate will also be represented but has not yet forwarded the name.