Sugar millers go silent as businesses and farmers suffer

Businesses along the sugar belt in Western and Nyanza are facing an uncertain future and counting huge losses due to the closure of sugar factories.
This follows the decision by the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) to suspend sugarcane milling for three months, to allow cane to mature.
The closure is a major blow to local vibrant economy that thrives due to activities associated with sugar cane milling in towns and centres where factories are located.
The vivacity seen in some places a few weeks ago is gradually being replaced by stillness and business closures. Chemelil, Bungoma, Mumias, Muhoroni, Kibos, Awendo, Shibale, Shianda, Harambee, and Mayoni are among the towns that are impacted.
Those in the food business who have been feeding hundreds of employees as well as vendors that provide sugarcane to millers in the area have been hardest hurt.
The impacted towns’ traders are facing a dismal future, according to interviews with a number of them. They assert that the majority of them are scrambling to find alternatives and worry they won’t send their kids to school starting on 25 August  for the third term.
Some allege that the huge loans they obtained to rebuild their firms have made their position worse. Mercy Nekesa, who has been operating a store at the Bukembe Trading Center in Bungoma for six years, is currently trapped.
The Nzoia sugar business, which shut its doors a month ago, is just 5 miles from the city center. Nekesa’s firm, like that of the majority of traders, was wholly dependent on the sugar miller to survive, and she has been fighting to stay afloat.
She’s not by herself. Boda boda driver Gideon Kibisu claims that the shutdown of the factory has had an impact on his transportation business. He is headquartered at the Kambi Mwanza stage, which is close to the West Kenya Sugar Company in Kakamega North.
“Before the factory was closed a couple of weeks ago, we had many customers, but things changed when the sugar miller closed shop, I rarely get four customers a day,” said Kibisu.
The deserted Miwani Sugar Company./Photo Courtesy
“There are over 100 boda boda riders here, but we have no customers. It is a pity that one has to wake up early, go to work and return hours later empty-handed because business has been disrupted,” he added.
The lack of economic activity has hampered other companies surrounding sugar factories in Western and Nyanza, including grocery stores, mobile money outlets, restaurants, and barbershops.
The story of Miwani town is heartbreaking in Kisumu. The once-powerful sugarcane farming hamlet is now a ghost city, bartered, forgotten, and abandoned.
Following the Miwani Sugar Company’s receivership in 2000, the town began to decline and faded away a few years later.
With the passing of Kenya’s oldest sugar miller, hundreds of jobs were lost and companies that depended on the factory’s income flow collapsed.
With the passing of Kenya’s oldest sugar miller, hundreds of jobs were lost and companies that depended on the factory’s income flow collapsed.
The demise of all sugar mills seems to be sealed by their shutdown. A few companies that had begun to strategically relocate to the city center in preparation of the government’s planned rebirth of the millers have been forced to start over.
Hotel owner Joseph Okello claimed to have hopes of business recovering, but everything has already fallen apart. He thinks millers’ closure has caused enormous damage.
“It is not easy to survive for four months without business,” he said.
Sony Sugar Company./Photo Courtesy
A group of activists who organized demonstrations to shut down a functioning private miller have made the issue worse. Businesses in Kibos and other areas of Mamboleo are now under danger as traders consider how to survive.
Charles Atyang led them in their argument that it was unfair for private millers to operate while public millers were shut down. He argued that the change represented unfair competition.
Traders in Awendo have sighed with relief as Sony Sugar has continued to operate despite the AFA’s prohibition. According to Ezra Olodi, secretary general of the National Federation of Sugarcane Farmers, the closure of sugar firms will result in farmers living in abject poverty and schoolchildren staying at home.
“The government should let sugarcane factories operate to allow parents get money to take their children to university, colleges and secondary schools,” Mr Olodi said, adding that some had taken loans.
Local investors in Awendo town also fear that if Sony Sugar is closed, insecurity will be high. “It’s closure will mean that even our businesses get affected. People will now be sleeping hungry,” Alice Awino said.
Sony Sugar company MD Stephen Ligawa said they were still operating. “We are running with AFA consent,” Mr Ligawa said.
Farmers claimed that they are concerned about the dire situation. In two months, Patrick Mudialo of the Matungu constituency expects his cane to be ready for harvesting after weeding it three times.
“I am confused because AFA ordered sugar mills to shut down for at least four months over what the regulator termed lack of raw materials, I don’t know what will happen to my sugarcane if the sugar mills will stay shut,” adding he invested over KSh120,000 on the sugarcane. “I bought seed cane, fertiliser and paid for land preparation, among other expenses,” said the farmer.
The sixteen-month-old crop of Mumias West farmer Everlyne Matendechere is about to be harvested. She borrowed KSh70,000 to invest in the sugarcane cultivation.