The focus on problems facing Mumias Sugar Company Limited should not deflect attention from the bigger crisis in an industry that supports hundreds of thousands of people in the western Kenya sugar belt.
Indeed, even a casual look at the region shows the industry is intricately weaved into the rural economies of the region, and its downfall could tragic. The debate should, therefore, not be whether the industry can be saved, but how it will be done in view of the limited left before Comesa partner states start exporting their sugar to Kenya next February.