FILE Mumias Sugar Company entrance. Image: HILTON OTENYO Dan Lwanga, a 54 year old cane farmer in Matungu misses the good old days when his family used to holiday at the coastal beaches after receiving sugarcane dues.
”That envelope from Mumias Outgrowers Company was life to our family. It meant food, school fees and once in a while, a three-day holiday to a coastal beach," Lwanga ,who now grows maize on half of the family land told the Star during a recent visit.
Leaning on a wall of his worn-out four bedroom house, one of the first permanent structures in the village, the father of five recalls with nostalgia how his deceased wife could start packing in September for a holiday in December.
”Our souls were tied to Mumias and it’s slow collapse that first manifested after 2007 general election gutted us. It completely drained us,” Lwanga says, fighting back tears.
He inherited the sugarcane farming business from his father who was among first members of the Outgrowers company
His neighbour, Jacob Mumia now relies on proceeds from his two posho mills and a shop for survival.
According to him, the collapse of Mumias Sugar will have an impact on two generations to come in the absence of clear revival plans.
"Most people who depended on this company are either dead or depressed. Our lives were tied to its existence. I hope it is revived someday," Mumia who still practices small scale sugarcane farming says.
Lwanga and Mumia’s stories represent those of hundreds of farmers who relied on the once biggest sugar firm in Eastern Africa, controlling 50 per cent of Kenya’s market.
In its heyday, the miller would crush up to 7,000 tonnes of cane per day, producing at least 250,000 metric tonnes of sugar annually.
It had 4,494.8 hectares of nucleus under sugarcane, as well as additional cane from contracted farmers. The collapse Famers who talked to the Star said they noticed a change at the firm after 2007 general elections."We started experiencing delays in payment, logistical challenges and other red flags that resulted in the collapse of the Outgrowers, the main cane supplier to the company,” a farmer explained.This affected supply at Mumias forcing it to go under after defaulting loans from creditors, huge power bills, and tax arrears.In September 2019, KCB Group which was owed in excess of Sh500 million was forced to appoint an administrator in a bid to recover the money.Apart from KCB’s […]
