Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa/FILE
KISUMU, Kenya, Nov 30 – The government will soon release Taskforce Reports on sugar and maize after they were presented to President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa says the two taskforces were commissioned by the President to look into what ails the two sectors.
Wamalwa who spoke in Kisumu Friday, when he attended a consultative meeting convened by the Lake Region Economic Bloc (LREB) and the National Assembly Committee on Agriculture says the two reports now await the official launch.
“These taskforces have completed their reports and already handed them over to his Excellency the President and as we speak this matter has been before cabinet,” he said.
A member of the Agriculture Committee, Wafula Wamunyinyi has in the meantime introduced in parliament a private member’s Sugar Bill 2019 in a bid to save the sector from collapse.
Wamalwa says the Bill is timely and will ensure views of farmers are captured to strengthen governance of the sector. “When you look at this Bill, it is a very good document but there is room for improvement to get your inputs as key stakeholders,” he said.
He said the Bill must borrow heavily from the Sugar taskforce report to make it concrete. Wamalwa said the Agriculture Cabinet Secretary has in the meantime shelved the gazettement of sugar regulations pending the taskforce report outcome.
LREB chairman Wyclife Oparanya, who is the Kakamega Governor urged the Agriculture Committee to ensure the Bill recognizes farmers.
Oparanya says farmers have been neglected in the past yet they are the custodians of the raw material.
He says that the previous sugar Act leaned towards the government, workers and suppliers while sidelining farmers who toil in farms to grow the cane.
Oparanya says this led to huge arrears owed to farmers while the rest of the players in the supply chain were paid. “So when you are making this bill make sure it is pro farmers,” he said.
He called for the reinstatement of the repealed Sugar Act of 2001 to restore order in the sugar sector. “As soon as it was repealed and amalgamated with the other crops Acts, that is when it started raining on us in the sugar sector,” he said.
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