President Ruto writes off Nzoia Sugar Company’s Ksh.50B debt, dismisses privatisation reports

President William Ruto has reassured sugarcane farmers of reviving the sector to its former glory by clearing accrued debts and ensuring that they’re paid on a timely basis.

Addressing the Nzoia Sugar Company Farmer's meeting in Bungoma County on Thursday, President Ruto said his administration had cleared Ksh.50 billion debt owed to the company that had led to its crisis.

He reaffirmed the government’s commitment to do away with similar debts for the Muhoroni, Chemelil, Soni, and Miwani sugar factories which amounted to Ksh.117 billion.

“I will write off the debts of the three sugar companies…the past three governments have tried but they did not succeed. I want to confirm to you that Nzoia Sugar's debt of Ksh.50 billion has been written off by the government. Your company is free...we have done the same to the Muhoroni, Chemelil, Soni, Miwani all totalling up to Ksh.117 billion,” he said.

According to the President, sugar companies in Western Kenya have since time immemorial experienced a crisis and his predecessors were unable to write off the debts, thus rendering them unmanageable.

This, he said, had impacted the industries negatively, leading to the companies being unable to pay their workers and farmers and run their operations.

Ruto vowed that all farmers would be paid within two days, adding that the Ksh.1.7 billion debt to farmers by Nzoia Sugar had been waived.

“Even debts like PAYE, and NHIF, NSSF have been written off and we have taken them up as the government and paid them,” he stated.

“We have calculated the cumulative debts owed to farmers and they add up to about Ksh.1.7 billion and we came up with a supplementary budget and we sorted it. In the next two days, every farmer will have been paid. We must sort out the farmers…I will also go and do the same to other sugar farmers.”

The Head of State took his critics head-on accusing them of pushing for the privatization of the companies saying that the State would manage sugar companies and that no company would be sold or run by individuals.

In what appeared to be a seeming threat to anyone seeking control of the factories, he cited the recent row over Mumias Sugar Company control with business tycoon Jaswant Rai saying similar actions would be taken against cartels.

“No company in Nzoia will be sold to anyone. Those who sold Pan Paper, you know them right? One of them was the one in Mumias…if anyone thinks they will buy this company, it will not be sold. It is a property of the Bungoma people. There's no privatization and no sale that is going to happen,” said Ruto.

“We will have the right management that is going to make sure they pay the farmers on time, pay the workers, run the factory  and pay a dividend every year; either to the farmers or Bungoma County.”

Consequently, President Ruto promised to oversee the success of the sugar industry as promised in his campaigns.

"We will sit with leaders to add Ksh.500 million to each company that will be allocated to the cane development if the company is managed rightly," he noted.