The government has allocated Sh654 million to address arrears owed to farmers and workers in the struggling sugar industry. Agriculture Principal Secretary Kiprono Ronoh confirmed that the funds, approved in the 2023-24 financial year budget, will primarily focus on revitalizing sugar reforms.
Out of the total allocation, Sh354 million will go towards settling farmers’ arrears in Nzoia, Muhoroni, Chemelil, and Sony millers. Another Sh150 million has been earmarked to clear three months’ salary arrears for workers at Nzoia Sugar, with the remaining Sh150 million allocated to pay one month’s salary to workers in other sugar companies.
Despite workers being owed significantly more than Sh5 billion in total, the PS clarified that this disbursement represents the first tranche and that the payment process has commenced.
“So, the payment made will only cover one month of the arrears of the total monies owed to them by the sugar firms,’’ he explained in a letter to the AFA Director General.
He said: “We have received the exchequer for the appropriated budget of Sh654 million in the financial year 2023/2024 supplementary budget II sup[1]port for sugar Reforms.’’
Unionizable workers from state-owned sugar mills, led by Kenya National Federation of Sugarcane Growers Muhoroni branch secretary Noah Opiyo, expressed dissatisfaction with the distribution of the Sh354 million disbursed by the government. They argue that the amount allocated to clear arrears is insufficient for the approximately 8,000 affected workers.
While acknowledging the recent disbursement that settled the final tranche of funds owed to farmers, Opiyo highlighted that the workers’ share, considering the industry-wide arrears totaling over Sh5 billion spanning more than three years, is inadequate to significantly alleviate their financial burdens.
He particularly questioned the rationale behind allocating Sh150 million solely to Nzoia Sugar while the rest of the mills receive a similar amount to be shared among them.
‘’This is what we are protesting as biased,’’ he said The workers urged the government to move fast and settle the worker’s arrears before it sets a new stage to revamp and commercialise the industry and salvage it from collapse. Opiyo was addressing the press in the Awendo sugar belt accompanied by several ionizable employers.
Although they were happy that the state had started making the payments, they asked that the worker’s arrears should be cleared as well as that of farmers.
“We want to thank the President for making good his commitment to revive the sugar industry. We support. But all debts must be sorted in real-time,’’ said Opiyo
Kenya Union of Sugarcane Plantation and Allied Workers (KUSPAW) General Secretary Francis Wangara criticized the government for what he perceives as bias and discrimination in the distribution of funds to sugar companies. He expressed dissatisfaction with the decision to allocate Sh150 million to Nzoia Sugar while dividing a similar amount among three other millers.
Wangara described this allocation as unacceptable and viewed it as a deliberate attempt to test the solidarity of the workers. He also pointed out that this distribution contradicts President Ruto’s earlier commitment to earmark Sh600 million for payment to workers across the four sugar companies.
