From: Arrum Tidi
News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City
The High Court judgment in which the West Kenya Sugar Company on Tuesday this week lost in the round one the battle to control sugar cane crops harvesting in Busia County’s cane growing zone to the Mumias Sugar Company is expected to bring sanity within the sugar industry where millers have been reportedly violently scrambling and poaching for the scarce raw cane.
The High Court Judge within Mr Justice Said Chitambwe sitting in Kakamega Court dismissed with costs an application filed by West Kenya Sugar Company that sought to overturn the temporary orders obtained by Mumias Sugar Company.
Mumias Sugar Company got the injunction barring West Kenya Sugar Company from harvesting and ferrying sugar cane fro Busia cane growing zone on September 11,2012.
The orders also restrained West Kenya from operating a weigh-bridge within Mumias sugar belt, Busia zone is within Mumias sugar belt.
West Kenya which is located within Kakamega County had filed objections to the orders by Mumias Sugar.
There has been a spirited battle and scrambles for cane crops in the region following acute shortage of the same in the area.
These battles have led to loss of lives and destruction of properties. Tractors found conveying sugar cane to either factory have been set ablaze and crew savagely beaten up by hired goons and the millers engaged in war of attrition over raw materials.
The same problems have occurred in other sugar cane growing regions in both Nyanza and Western Provinces. In some places it has been a total war as the competing miller deployed short-cut methods to undercut their competitors.
The worse hit is the Awendo-based SONYSUGAR company following the recent commissioning of two newly established sugar mills, one of them the Sukari Industries which is situated at Oria Market right on the boundaries of Ndhiwa and Uriri districts.
THE new sugar mill, which is a medium size mill with low production capacity has no nucleus estate farm of its own on which to grow cane and ensure it is a float in business throughout the year. This mill depended entirely cane crops “poaching” cane from sonysugar growing zones in the region.
The Sonysugar which has been operation for over 30 year has its own nucleus estate farm of over 6000 hectares. It has contracted close to 27,000 out growers cane farmers in several districts in the region which included Migori, Awendo, Rongo, Gucha, Uriri, Trans-Mara West, Kuria, and Homa-Bay. It has similar number of non-contracted cane farmers and almost the same number of non-contracted farmers. And sonysugar has also spent millions in shillings in financing its out grower farmers in land preparation, supplies of cane seedlings, cultivation and other good cane husbandry supports.
The Sukari Industries, however, has yet to envisage immediate plan of supporting out grower cane farmer in its Ndhiwa district zone in order to alleviate its perennial raw material supplies problem, and it appears as if the war of attrition and scrambling or the scarce cane would continue for some unforeseeable future.
Moreover the Sukari Industries sugar mill was established close to SonySugar company in flagrant and total defiance of the rules and regulation set up by he Kenya Sugar Board, which stipulates that anyone intending o invest in new sugar factory should ensure that the new facility is set up in a distance of not less than 40 kilometers away from the existing sugar
Owing to the unconfirmed allegation members of the KSB corruptively and hurriedly approved and licensed the new factory against the board’s own laid down rules of cane growing zoning, leaving the mills to fend for themselves hence the source of discontent and rampant poaching of raw cane.
The police and the provincial administration in Migori County appeared to be of no much help, perhaps having been compromised, taking into account that the investors in the to new mills are Asian tycoons.
The distance between SonySugar at the Trans-Mara Sugar Company, which is also owed by Asian investors is about 15 kilometers. Similarly this mill also has no nucleus estate farm of its own and depended entirely on crops planted and developed with SonySugar money and has been harvesting these cane with impunity, depriving the Awendo Mill of its cash which it has used in financing the cane development in the farms allocated along the Migori Narok Counties boundaries.
It is high time the government get involved practically by forcing official demarcation exercises and allocating each sugar mill its own clearly marked cane growing zone in order to bring to an end harvesting zones for each sugar factory.
In the Nyanza sugar belt covering Kisumu and Nyando districts where four sugar mills are operating, the situation is no different fro that facing SonySugar in Southern Nyanza.
The four sugar mills included Miwani Sugar Mills, Kibos Sugar and Allie Industries at Kibos, Chemelil Sugar Company at Chemelil and Muhoroni Sugar Mills based at Muhoroni town.
Out of the four mills, Miwani and Muhoroni is operational, but in a small scale the two facilities went burst ten years ago due to their inability to servicing debs running into billion of shillings Miwani has remained closed while Muhoroni is still operating in a small scale under the official receivership management.
With Chemelil company,which used to be the center of excellence in the sugar industry sub-sector on its death bed, the prospect of Kenya experiencing acute shortage of sugar in the near future cannot be ruled out.
The problem at Chemelil has just came about as the result of the prevalent cut-throat competition over raw sugar cane.The company has been crushing cane below its capacities for close to one year forcing the mill to be operational only thrice or twice a week.
It all started when the Kenya sugar Board approved and licensed the Kibos Sugar and Allied Industries at Kibos near Kisumu without properly assessing it source of cane supplies. The Mill has since then constructed a weigh-bridge at Awasi where it is receiving cane destined for Chemelil and Muhoroni Sugar Mills, which is only eight kilometers away from Awasi.The Awasi weigh-bridge has also the negative effect on the cane supplies to Muhoroni Sugar.
The Kibos Sugar and Allied Industries has also established another weigh-bridge at Chepsweta or near Kibigori where it is also receiving raw cane from the Nandi Escarpment which were previously going to Chemelil and those coming from Miwni zone, though Miwani is long close down, the cut-throat exercise is not good for long term planning or the continuation of cane supplies to the mills within Nyanza sugar belt the mills were only allowed to undercut one another.
The government must come out with a clear-cut sorts of policy guideline to impose sanity in the important sugar industry on which millions of Kenyans depended on fr their livelihood.
Claims, speculations and rumors are also abound with allegation of poor weighing system at the sugar mills operated by Asian investors where unsuspecting and illiterate and poor African farmers are allegedly losing millions on technically faulty weigh and measures at the factories weighbridges.
Members of the sugar cane farming fraternity are placing the blame squarely at the doorsteps of the elected members of Parliament [MPS} representing sugar cane growing constituencies for the inability to articulating the farmers problems. Some of the MP it is being alleged have joined the league with Asian millers and investors who are exploiting the cane farmers to the maximum.
Ends