Mumias Sugar Given a 14 Day Ultimatum

A portion of farmers in Mumias, Kakamega County, provided the management of Mumias Sugar Company a two-week notice to release the firm’s financial status report.

Addressing the press on Saturday, March 8, the farmers, with other sugar sector stakeholders, raised alarm over apparent irregularity in the financial management of the corporation.

As the farmers vented their annoyances, they asked how the company, despite making a sufficient amount of money from the sale of sugar, was unable to settle a multi-million dollar debt it owed.

One of the farmers’ representatives said, “We don’t know what this receiver manager took over; we don’t know the value of the assets, including the value of tractors that he took over when he acquired the company.”

He continued, “We have never received any status report; we do not know how much he received after selling the sugar he found there or how he used the money.”

The angry farmers claim that they would sue the company’s owners for alleged financial misappropriation if they did not release their financial report within 14 days.

In order for the business to make well-informed decisions, they also insisted on periodic engagement with the firm owners on important matters impacting farmers.

Another representative stated, “We will demand that we, as farmers, be consulted at every stage of decision-making, out of all these farmers that you are seeing.”

Mumias Sugar’s most recent issue occurs just two months after President William Ruto praised the company’s management and said that the reforms implemented in the sugar company produced notable outcomes.

Speaking in Kakamega County on January 20 at the start of the sugar bonus program, Ruto disclosed that the initiative to revitalize the sugar industry included paying Ksh1.7 billion in arrears to farmers and Ksh650 million owing to workers.

The Head of State announced his approval of the Sugar Act 2024, which creates sugarcane catchment zones to enhance milling operations, in keeping with other recommendations made by the 2019 Sugar Taskforce.