What If Sarrai Group Is Planning To Use Mumias Sugar Company As Their Godown For Ugandan Sugar?

In my wild imagination, I heard the little bird asking from the lonely streets; do you know who was given the mandate to revive the defunct Mumias Sugar Company? Do you know that the person might not be planning to revive the factory because he has other factories in Uganda?

The little bird continued; do you know that once given the legal go-ahead the first agenda will be turning it into a godown? This way, it will just be like any other store. This way, farmers should forget about ever planting sugarcane. This way, former employees should give up and resign to their miserable fate. This way, shareholders will have to bid the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) goodbye.

The words of the little bird kept me awake the whole night. What if they were true? What if these human beings at Sarrai Group give no damn about Mumias and only want to utilize the machines to grow their businesses in Uganda? What if their goal is to bring in sugar from Uganda then brand it as “Mumias” and sell it to us?

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Picture this; Sarrai Group has at least two sugar factories in Uganda. They are farming thousands of acres of land. In fact, the land is so huge that they are being accused of having grabbed some from the locals, and are in the process of grabbing a section of a whole forest. Their interests are in Uganda, not in Kenya. So, why are they more interested in Mumias Sugar Company?

For years, Kenya has been importing about 90,000 tonnes of sugar from Uganda. In 2021, the government cut this by 79 percent allowing people to import only 18,923 tonnes. There was a protest from the Ugandan government and an agreement was reached and the floodgates of sugar from Uganda were once again opened.

Let us be honest; sugar farming in Uganda is cheaper than in Kenya. That is the reality. The cost of producing sugar in Kenya is just way beyond. Why would someone want to leave all that in Uganda and come to struggle to revive Mumias Sugar Company? Is it because they love Kenya so much and they don’t want Kenyans to suffer? I doubt that.

What many people are forgetting is that Sarrai Group was the lowest bidder in the whole of the bidding process for Mumias Sugar Company. This means that the guys were not even interested in the first place and were just “trying their luck.” What is more, these guys said that it will take them at least 10 years to pay debts owed to Mumias Sugar Company. Believe me, by the time the 10 years will be over, these guys would have killed it and moved on.

As I pen this down, the question is, what if these guys are planning to use Mumias Sugar Company as their godown?

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