Public endorses Tarda, Mumias sugar plant
By Standard Reporter
Mumias Sugar Company has moved a step closer to realising its dream of setting up a state-of-the-art sugar factory in the Tana Delta in Tana River District.
Ongoing public hearings, which kicked off last week, saw local people endorse the project. They complained it was taking too long to get going and then gave their conditions for their acceptance of it.
Leading the local people with an endorsement of the proposed factory, complete with an expansive nucleus estate was Assistant Minister Mr Danson Mungatana.
Mungatana told the public hearings that land totalling 200,000 hectares had been set aside at the ADC’s Galana Ranch for the local pastoralist community to give pasture and water for their animals.
A major criticism levelled against Mumias has been that the factory’s 20,000-hectare nucleus estate will deprive the pastoralists of land for pasture and water for their animals and therefore strangle them economically.
While Mungatana described the proposed factory as godsend, he warned: "We will give you total support but we want the company to be known as Tana River Sugar Company Ltd and in which local people will be allowed to own shares."
Most of the people who aired their views in the public hearings in Ngao, Garsen, Kipini and Witu which is in Lamu District, urged Mumias Sugar and the Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority to train local people in the running and management of sugar mills.
They complained that employment was a major challenge in the area and expressed optimism that the sugar factory and its nucleus estate would play a significant role in alleviating this and other challenges in Tana River District.
There was a word of caution here, too: "We don’t want the company (Mumias Sugar) to hire other people while we have well-educated people as has happened with previous projects. Hire our people," said an elder, Mr Ali Dhadhu.
Mr Aggrey Wanjala, the Mumias Sugar Company chief who is in charge of project implementation at Tana River, assured the local people that the company would work closely with them and take a leading role in addressing the challenges facing them.
Mumias Sugar officials say that when operational, the factory will have a power generation plant and employ directly and indirectly an estimated 30,000 people.
They told the public hearings that the feasibility and environment impact assessment studies for the sugar project are at an advanced stage.
The hearings are part of a sensitisation and consultation process Mumias Sugar has been carrying out to get the local peoples’ buy-in ahead of the project’s commencement.
Mumias Sugar Company has moved a step closer to realising its dream of setting up a state-of-the-art sugar factory in the Tana Delta in Tana River District.
Ongoing public hearings, which kicked off last week, saw local people endorse the project. They complained it was taking too long to get going and then gave their conditions for their acceptance of it.
Leading the local people with an endorsement of the proposed factory, complete with an expansive nucleus estate was Assistant Minister Mr Danson Mungatana.
Mungatana told the public hearings that land totalling 200,000 hectares had been set aside at the ADC’s Galana Ranch for the local pastoralist community to give pasture and water for their animals.
A major criticism levelled against Mumias has been that the factory’s 20,000-hectare nucleus estate will deprive the pastoralists of land for pasture and water for their animals and therefore strangle them economically.
While Mungatana described the proposed factory as godsend, he warned: "We will give you total support but we want the company to be known as Tana River Sugar Company Ltd and in which local people will be allowed to own shares."
Most of the people who aired their views in the public hearings in Ngao, Garsen, Kipini and Witu which is in Lamu District, urged Mumias Sugar and the Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority to train local people in the running and management of sugar mills.
They complained that employment was a major challenge in the area and expressed optimism that the sugar factory and its nucleus estate would play a significant role in alleviating this and other challenges in Tana River District.
There was a word of caution here, too: "We don’t want the company (Mumias Sugar) to hire other people while we have well-educated people as has happened with previous projects. Hire our people," said an elder, Mr Ali Dhadhu.
Mr Aggrey Wanjala, the Mumias Sugar Company chief who is in charge of project implementation at Tana River, assured the local people that the company would work closely with them and take a leading role in addressing the challenges facing them.
Mumias Sugar officials say that when operational, the factory will have a power generation plant and employ directly and indirectly an estimated 30,000 people.
They told the public hearings that the feasibility and environment impact assessment studies for the sugar project are at an advanced stage.
The hearings are part of a sensitisation and consultation process Mumias Sugar has been carrying out to get the local peoples’ buy-in ahead of the project’s commencement.
posted by Mwananchi at 7:30 PM
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