Government to install milk coolers in all wards, Ruto says

President William Ruto has promised that the government will install coolers in the modernization programme of Kenya Co-operative Creameries (KCC) facilities in all the wards in the country.

Speaking in Nyeri during his five-day tour of the Mount Kenya region, Ruto said that he had coordinated with officials in the Ministry of Agriculture to ensure that the coolers are delivered to farmers by December 2023.

“We have planned for 650 milk coolers that we will distribute to at least every ward to process and store milk. My instructions are that before December the milk coolers should be in Kenya and distributed to all the farmers in all the areas,” President Ruto said.

He said that the government has set aside Sh3 million in the modernization program of the facilities and the stalled facilities will be completed using the Sh700 million that had already been funded for in the supplementary budget.

Further, the modernization process will be used to increase milk production capacity from 380,000 liters to 800,000 liters.

Ruto said that the milk coolers will also do away with middlemen who buy milk at throw-away prices in the rural areas to make profits by selling at higher prices in the upper market.

“In our quest for the local and international market for milk, we will also ensure that people who are aiming at making money quickly by importing powder from other countries through fraud and coming to compete with our farmers. That door we shall close,” Ruto said.

He promised to deal with cartels in the milk sector to ensure that farmers get the profit that has been landing in the hands of fraudsters.

Additionally, the president promised to reduce the cost of production by reducing the cost of fertilizers for farmers.

“Today in our state lodge meeting we authorized yellow maize and products used in making animal feeds to be imported without duty. We are also reducing the price of fertilizer because it helps in growing animal feeds so that farmers can make a profit,” he added.

He added that the government in its budget has removed the value-added tax on animal feeds and exempt duty to ensure that feeds are accessible to farmers at affordable prices.