Kikuyu Dominated Industries Supported.... Nothing for Sugarcane Farmers

[Omollo]

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Is this not extremely obnoxious discrimination?

Coffee Farmers debts written off (by Kibaki and later Uhuru) : Nothing for Tea and Sugarcane
Sugar Factories LOANED money : Coffee Industry GRANTED tax-payers billions
Cashew Nut factories allowed to Die at the Coast: Kenyatta Family grabs the land (Kwale and Kilifi)

President Uhuru Kenyatta has announced a budgetary allocation of 1 billion to cushion miraa growers from the challenges of a ban from European markets two years ago.

Uhuru said he instructed the Cabinet, that discussed budgetary priorities for the next financial year in Naivasha last week, to include funds to support miraa, like other cash crops.

He spoke at State House, Nairobi, when he signed into law a Bill that will categorises miraa as a cash crop. The amended Crops Act opens doors for the crop to benefit from government budgetary funding.

The Mediated Version of the Miscellaneous Amendment Bill No 2 makes minor amendments to the Crops Act to recognise miraa as a cash crop.

The Act obligates the national government to establish mechanisms for promotion, production, distribution and marketing of miraa as a cash crop.

[Georgesoros]

more debt to finance a dying crop. how many chew miraa?

[RV Pundit]

I am sorry Omollo but you could never be any wronger (my own English).

No other sector has enjoyed so much support for so little gain than Sugar industry. The other laggard the Maize industry is little better off.

Gov has guaranteed more than 60B for entire sugar factories mostly located in Luo Nyanza and Western. Mumias just got 2B cash injection. The sick sugar industry has been propped for nearly 50 years.

Gov has also blocked very cheap import of Sugar for so many years to protect this dead as dodo sugar industry. Every kenyan is now subsidizing that sugar industry at greatest personal pain...sugar is dirty cheap in global market...but every morning millions of kenyans are giving up money to the most inefficient farmers in the world. Recently we even had to protect our selves from UGANDA sugar !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It cheaper to buy Sugar in war torn Somalia than in Kenya. In fact Somalis have benefited greatly from smuggling this sugar.
 
Say whatever you'll say..but Kikuyuz have proven to be world class farmers. Miraa is a proven foreign exchange earner.

Until the mid late 90s, Coffee was the crop that propped the economy of this country and truly deserve every support.We still produce some of the best coffee in the world.

There is a lot that we can learn from Kikuyu farmers....a lot...our people in tea industry make annual pilgrimage to kikuyu & gema land to learn.....and you can see that Kalenjin..formerly agro-pastoral communities...are kicking arse in all these agricluture activities. It reality that a tea farmer in central earn about twice what farmer in kericho or bomet or nandi earn. It easy to think this is some "conspiracy" until you accept to face the painful truth...that these farmers are working harder, smarter and more efficiently than you.

Kikuyu dominate industries that kenya excel in...dairy,horticulture, tea, coffee, miraa and etc. We should learn from that.

Yes there are also areas kikuyu need to learn from rest of kenya......one of which is having less crime/less alcohol addiction/less drugs.

There are things to hate about kikuyus...there are things we need admire and learn from them. No doubt they are prolific farmers. Deserving of every support.

[yulemsee]

Every kenyan is now subsidizing that sugar industry at greatest personal pain...

Kenya produces around 500,000 thousand tonnes of sugar annually with an ex factory price of Kes. 90 per kg vis a vis an international sugar price of Kes 45 per kg. That Kes. 45 difference is picked by Kenyan consumers because it's too expensive to be exported anywhere. We therefore subsidise this industry by Kes 22.5 billion each year, every year. Above this subsidy footed by consumers, take note that at Kes.90 the sugar millers are selling sugar below the cost of production, they end up reporting losses on an annual basis and at some point tax payers have to step in and re capitalise these firms. Add a few billions more on top of the annual Kes. 22.5billion.
Couple this with the lost opportunity for our food processing industry, it's simply bonkers to continue supporting this industry.

[RV Pundit]

Precisely. Thanks for putting the figures down.

Kenya produces around 500,000 thousand tonnes of sugar annually with an ex factory price of Kes. 90 per kg vis a vis an international sugar price of Kes 45 per kg. That Kes. 45 difference is picked by Kenyan consumers because it's too expensive to be exported anywhere. We therefore subsidise this industry by Kes 22.5 billion each year, every year. Above this subsidy footed by consumers, take note that at Kes.90 the sugar millers are selling sugar below the cost of production, they end up reporting losses on an annual basis and at some point tax payers have to step in and re capitalise these firms. Add a few billions more on top of the annual Kes. 22.5billion.
Couple this with the lost opportunity for our food processing industry, it's simply bonkers to continue supporting this industry.

[Omollo]

There is a difference here: GoK may have supported the Sugar INDUSTRY by pumping in money which the likes of Kidero then share with the so called "donor". NOTHING has ever gone to the individual farmers.

Compare that to Kibaki writing off ALL the debts of coffee farmers and once more debts were accumulated, Uhuru comes and writes them off. Kikuyu farmers are in the Debt Writing Off business not Farming.

Do Sugarcane farmers have debts? Could they benefit from debt relief?

Most of the sugarcane delivered to the factories goes to service debts. From inputs to transportation of the very sugarcane and its harvesting. It is not unusual for farmers to get a pay slip and zero cash.

What I need to know is why Kikuyu Presidents (Not Moi) see it fit to repay the individual personal debts of Kikuyu farmers and not those of Luo and Luhya farmers.

Note also that Pundit has fudged the facts.

1. The Government of Kikuyus (GoK) gives grants to Kikuyu farmers and not loans
2. The same GoK gives LOANS to Sugarcane FACTORIES NOT farmers

I would have less to say if the farmers were treated equally.

About unprodutivity: There are many factors causing this not least GoK. As the owner GoK appoints incompetent managers for these factories. When Mumias was under the Booker Management it made profit and upon handing over GoK embarked on its usual thievery.

The Sudanese and Egyptian factories benefit from government subsidies. Brazilian factories produce sugar as a by-product.

[RV Pundit]

Omollo,

I understand your beef here is stabex (coffee) and maybe this miraa deal (which is still hazy). I don't think gov gives subsidies to region but to crops. So if you grew coffee, had some co-op, like say in Kisii then you should qualify for coffee Stabex. The same is true for sugar farmers wherever they are located.Of course I agree that gov has in the past favored some regions, coffee & tea & livestock received special attention during Kenyatta & Moi regime but I won't take from Kikuyu or Gema that they are some of most hardworking farmers deserving of every support.

The issue is which crop in say Nyanza do you think has reached a level it deserve gov support. There is barely nothing happening there. That should be the start. Miraa has been doing well and deserve support now. Just like tea industry was asking gov for some support when the markets went haywire.

As far as I know...western and north rift politicians have used political muscle to force us to subsidize industries which have no business propping...we should import Brazilian cheap sugar...and find something we can do better...maybe Soya beans..maybe dairy....anything.....that we can produce cheaply.

Our sugar is more expensive than UG, TZ and of all places MALAWI sugar.

We cannot afford to subsidize agricultural activities.
 

There is a difference here: GoK may have supported the Sugar INDUSTRY by pumping in money which the likes of Kidero then share with the so called "donor". NOTHING has ever gone to the individual farmers.

Compare that to Kibaki writing off ALL the debts of coffee farmers and once more debts were accumulated, Uhuru comes and writes them off. Kikuyu farmers are in the Debt Writing Off business not Farming.

Do Sugarcane farmers have debts? Could they benefit from debt relief?

Most of the sugarcane delivered to the factories goes to service debts. From inputs to transportation of the very sugarcane and its harvesting. It is not unusual for farmers to get a pay slip and zero cash.

What I need to know is why Kikuyu Presidents (Not Moi) see it fit to repay the individual personal debts of Kikuyu farmers and not those of Luo and Luhya farmers.

Note also that Pundit has fudged the facts.

1. The Government of Kikuyus (GoK) gives grants to Kikuyu farmers and not loans
2. The same GoK gives LOANS to Sugarcane FACTORIES NOT farmers

I would have less to say if the farmers were treated equally.

About unprodutivity: There are many factors causing this not least GoK. As the owner GoK appoints incompetent managers for these factories. When Mumias was under the Booker Management it made profit and upon handing over GoK embarked on its usual thievery.

The Sudanese and Egyptian factories benefit from government subsidies. Brazilian factories produce sugar as a by-product.

[Omollo]

Pundit

Review my posts here and at Mslanani (Choo.com) and you will find what I think of subsidies. I have been at the forefront of advocating for the uprooting of sugarcane and the planting of other crops or use of the land for other economic activities. I believe we should buy cheap sugar while educating our people about the dangers of sugar and hoping the demand for it will wane.

My concern here is not about subsidies. It is the open and blatant discrimination by GoK.

You raise the issue of cash crops in Luoland. Again I would refer you to previous debatesd where I have shown that successive governments used colonial legislation meant to force Luos and Luhyas to become cheap famr labour to deny these areas the right to grow certain crops. You know the history of the small scale farmer in RV, Western and Nyanza.

There is no scientific reason why tea isn't grown in Luo Nyanza but grows in Kisii. This has to be corrected as part of Agenda 4 and the victims should not be blamed.

[Georgesoros]

Supporting Miraa is more political rather than reality. It could have been better to support them cultivate high value crops like nuts, which b the way are consumed by a majority rather than Miraas minority. You may argue all you want but its politically short minded deal that will not benefit the area. Same as subsidizing sugar which went into Kideros pockets and left farmers moneyless.

[Nefertiti]

I feel Omollo on historical and present regional discrimination. But the victims should be assisted without castigating innocent beneficiaries -- Gema farmers -- who have been just making a living.

Sugar (and miraa) growers need alternatives which should be run as government programs. We can't just say it is economically unsound to subsidize agriculture, because it is more imperative to have equitable development and socioeconomic justice.

[jakoyo]

Kenya govt should bail out of supporting failed cash crops. Let private sector move in. Govt should focus on FOOD security ( maize , beans, cabbage , sukuma wiki , toamtoes , dairy and beef industry.

Let those sugar , tea , coffee , miraa inudstry face the same fate as cotton , pyrethrum cashewnut etc. The modernise , become effecient , find their market or they DIE

[Nefertiti]

Kenya govt should bail out of supporting failed cash crops. Let private sector move in. Govt should focus on FOOD security ( maize , beans, cabbage , sukuma wiki , toamtoes , dairy and beef industry.

Let those sugar , tea , coffee , miraa inudstry face the same fate as cotton , pyrethrum cashewnut etc. The modernise , become effecient , find their market or they DIE

You may be right on cash crops. But that Darwinian approach is not optimal. That is why we have government to plan the best alternatives for the affected people. Policy making is the antithesis of letting nature take its cause.

[Omollo]

Robina

First you stop the bleeding, sew the wound and then the healing starts. The discrimination is on-going. The Imperial Presidency is back supported by a zombie parliament that allows nay encourages Uhuru to treat National Revenue as Pesa ya Mama Ngina.

I do not support subsidies for anything other than what can come under Strategic Food Reserves.ALL  Non performing agri-business should simply die off without any tax monies going in to it.

That said what is the wisdom of supporting miraa? Are we blind to the suffering of the addicts and their families around the world? Should we be aiding such an "industry"? To my mind jubilee has shown total irresponsibility by recent actions:

1. Allowing Mass Gambling
2. Paying lip service to Alcoholism while staging stunts to appear to be fighting the vice
3. Going to bed with drug cartels and barons (CORD is in this too as the Second Demon)
4.  Corruption has finally been institutionalized with the Euro Bond Heist (I know my friend Pundit thinks it is nonsense but keep watching this space in the next four weeks as more information comes to the surface)

I feel Omollo on historical and present regional discrimination. But the victims should be assisted without castigating innocent beneficiaries -- Gema farmers -- who have been just making a living.

Sugar (and miraa) growers need alternatives which should be run as government programs. We can't just say it is economically unsound to subsidize agriculture, because it is more imperative to have equitable development and socioeconomic justice.

[Nefertiti]

Yes there is political malady -- tribalism, corruption, incompetence and psychophancy. Let us not conflate the debate.

Economic prudence is to let free market reign. But leadership requires more than that. It is the government's DUTY to assist the sugar, miraa, etc farmers find alternative economic undertaking.

Robina

First you stop the bleeding, sew the wound and then the healing starts. The discrimination is on-going. The Imperial Presidency is back supported by a zombie parliament that allows nay encourages Uhuru to treat National Revenue as Pesa ya Mama Ngina.

I do not support subsidies for anything other than what can come under Strategic Food Reserves.ALL  Non performing agri-business should simply die off without any tax monies going in to it.

That said what is the wisdom of supporting miraa? Are we blind to the suffering of the addicts and their families around the world? Should we be aiding such an "industry"? To my mind jubilee has shown total irresponsibility by recent actions:

1. Allowing Mass Gambling
2. Paying lip service to Alcoholism while staging stunts to appear to be fighting the vice
3. Going to bed with drug cartels and barons (CORD is in this too as the Second Demon)
4.  Corruption has finally been institutionalized with the Euro Bond Heist (I know my friend Pundit thinks it is nonsense but keep watching this space in the next four weeks as more information comes to the surface)

I feel Omollo on historical and present regional discrimination. But the victims should be assisted without castigating innocent beneficiaries -- Gema farmers -- who have been just making a living.

Sugar (and miraa) growers need alternatives which should be run as government programs. We can't just say it is economically unsound to subsidize agriculture, because it is more imperative to have equitable development and socioeconomic justice.

[yulemsee]

NOTHING has ever gone to the individual farmers.

The Sudanese and Egyptian factories benefit from government subsidies. Brazilian factories produce sugar as a by-product.

Those state controlled sugar millers are forced to buy sugarcane from farmers at prices way above the market rate, that's one of the reasons why our finished product has a price tag that's double the international price.
In Brazil millers buy sugarcane at about US $18 while in Kenya farmers are paid about $35 per tonne. That Kes 45 per kg subsidy consumers are forced to pay, some of it goes to the farmer.

[Omollo]

Robina

Speaking of conflation, please review the subject before your next post. I sought to address your list below: Tribalism, corruption etc. That is what the Uhuru Kenyatta government is charged with. The other matters such as justification for or against subsidies are indeed subsidiary to the debate. In other words I am asking why a government claiming the legitimacy of election can openly discriminate against its own people and confer privileges based on tribe. I do not think it is a matter to sweep under the carpet by a casual and hurried  "admission" before moving on to ostensibly more important issues of government "duties".

I do not agree with your premise that government has any duty whatever to assist any industry unless that industry encompasses a National Security concern.  Perhaps you can point at the foundation or basis for this so called "duty". Is it constitutional?

May be you did not notice the contradiction embedded in your own post where one one hand you advocate for the "prudence" of the"free market"while on the other you emphasize government [imprudent] intervention.

Robina what leadership discriminates against citizenry?

Kikuyu farmers have had their debts paid in full by the Kibaki government; Did it help? No they made more debts which Uhuru paid. Take a wild guess when the next debt and repayment would be due!

Yes there is political malady -- tribalism, corruption, incompetence and psychophancy. Let us not conflate the debate.

Economic prudence is to let free market reign. But leadership requires more than that. It is the government's DUTY to assist the sugar, miraa, etc farmers find alternative economic undertaking.

[Omollo]

Those state controlled sugar millers are forced to buy sugarcane from farmers at prices way above the market rate, that's one of the reasons why our finished product has a price tag that's double the international price.
In Brazil millers buy sugarcane at about US $18 while in Kenya farmers are paid about $35 per tonne. That Kes 45 per kg subsidy consumers are forced to pay, some of it goes to the farmer.

I am glad to see Yule Musee here. I guess I have been away for too long

Please read this:

http://mobile.nation.co.ke/news/Why-the-poor-Kenyan-sugarcane-grower-slave/-/1950946/2358254/-/format/xhtml/-/e9gcyaz/-/index.html

[yulemsee]

Those state controlled sugar millers are forced to buy sugarcane from farmers at prices way above the market rate, that's one of the reasons why our finished product has a price tag that's double the international price.
In Brazil millers buy sugarcane at about US $18 while in Kenya farmers are paid about $35 per tonne. That Kes 45 per kg subsidy consumers are forced to pay, some of it goes to the farmer.

I am glad to see Yule Musee here. I guess I have been away for too long

Please read this:

http://mobile.nation.co.ke/news/Why-the-poor-Kenyan-sugarcane-grower-slave/-/1950946/2358254/-/format/xhtml/-/e9gcyaz/-/index.html

State firms prey on the farmers they are supposed to serve, this is not a new thing, from the sugar millers to ktda, to pyrethrum board, coffee board ad infinitum. It's your argument of zero subsidies to cane  to farmers I'm trying to demolish

[Nefertiti]

Yes Omollo, Jubilee favors Gema and RV as their piper. No excuses. Our "ideology" is tribe so while Obama may favor minorities or the poor, our leaders attend to their people. Unlike socioeconomic ideology that allows some wiggleroom, ethnicity is curved in the DNA leading to the PEV scenario.

Uhuru needs a solid Meru block so he unlocks the purse. He does not see such payoff in Bondo or Nyamira. Politics. This takes us to psychophancy and incompetence -- non-GEMA MPs will not do their job so this will stand.

Pundit has pushed here for 80% devolution for expediency. Well 40% seems to be the US, Germany, etc average. Germany has about 15% 'Equalisation' revenue share to ensure equity in living standards. Resource distribution is the driver of harmony or lack of it. Our new laws left 15% for the counties and a meagre 0.5% for equalization These are the basics that fell through the political cracks in Naivasha.

Yes, our government is tribal and only devolution and the regional balance clause protect non-Jubilee folks from rout. Sad but true.

SUBSIDIES... Economic policy is mandated to the government of the day. Still there are fundamental principles on striving to better the wellbeing of all citizens. Just like the revenue allocation is a policy item yet has equity clauses in the book. Note the duty I allude is to facilitate farmers with viable alternatives, not subsidies per se.

Robina

Speaking of conflation, please review the subject before your next post. I sought to address your list below: Tribalism, corruption etc. That is what the Uhuru Kenyatta government is charged with. The other matters such as justification for or against subsidies are indeed subsidiary to the debate. In other words I am asking why a government claiming the legitimacy of election can openly discriminate against its own people and confer privileges based on tribe. I do not think it is a matter to sweep under the carpet by a casual and hurried  "admission" before moving on to ostensibly more important issues of government "duties".

I do not agree with your premise that government has any duty whatever to assist any industry unless that industry encompasses a National Security concern.  Perhaps you can point at the foundation or basis for this so called "duty". Is it constitutional?

May be you did not notice the contradiction embedded in your own post where one one hand you advocate for the "prudence" of the"free market"while on the other you emphasize government [imprudent] intervention.

Robina what leadership discriminates against citizenry?

Kikuyu farmers have had their debts paid in full by the Kibaki government; Did it help? No they made more debts which Uhuru paid. Take a wild guess when the next debt and repayment would be due!

[RV Pundit]

Yes the answer lies in devolution leading to federalism (where counties collect their taxes). That is the only answer in an environment poisoned by tribal politics.Corrupt governors will not survive the next election. They will go home like 80% of them. UhuRuto are save by tribal politics though.

Yes Omollo, Jubilee favors Gema and RV as their piper. No excuses. Our "ideology" is tribe so while Obama may favor minorities or the poor, our leaders attend to their people. Unlike socioeconomic ideology that allows some wiggleroom, ethnicity is curved in the DNA leading to the PEV scenario.

Uhuru needs a solid Meru block so he unlocks the purse. He does not see such payoff in Bondo or Nyamira. Politics. This takes us to psychophancy and incompetence -- non-GEMA MPs will not do their job so this will stand.

Pundit has pushed here for 80% devolution for expediency. Well 40% seems to be the US, Germany, etc average. Germany has about 15% 'Equalisation' revenue share to ensure equity in living standards. Resource distribution is the driver of harmony or lack of it. Our new laws left 15% for the counties and a meagre 0.5% for equalization These are the basics that fell through the political cracks in Naivasha.

Yes, our government is tribal and only devolution and the regional balance clause protect non-Jubilee folks from rout. Sad but true.

SUBSIDIES... Economic policy is mandated to the government of the day. Still there are fundamental principles on striving to better the wellbeing of all citizens. Just like the revenue allocation is a policy item yet has equity clauses in the book. Note the duty I allude is to facilitate farmers with viable alternatives, not subsidies per se.