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The Nairobian

South Nyanza Sugar Company to refund Sh23m charged for burnt cane

Business

By Kepher Otieno | Sep 05, 2016

The board of the South Nyanza Sugar Company will refund Sh23 million deducted from farmers’ pay.

The board had initially charged farmers Sh1,000 per tonne of burnt cane harvested and delivered to the company in a bid to halt a rise in cases of cane arson.

But the decision did not sit well with farmers, who questioned the rationale for penalising them when they did not know the arsonists, who mostly struck at night and set their plantations ablaze.

The Standard has established that the penalty decision has since been revoked.

“The burnt cane price of Sh1,000 per tonne remains suspended. The company has rolled out a programme of making payment-refunds to all farmers who delivered burnt cane as from October 10, 2015, and were charged the reduced price,” reads a notice to farmers.

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The notice was issued by the company’s managing director, Jane Pamela, as the management embarked on a campaign to motivate farmers to continue investing in the sub-sector as they await the privatisation of mills.

The MD said the company has been losing millions of shillings to cane arson, and had introduced the penalties to forestall the vice.