West Kenya Sugar snubs meeting to resolve turf war with Butali Sugar Mills

The arbitration between rival sugar millers West Kenya Limited and Butali Sugar Mills started on a sour note after the former snubbed a meeting called to resolve the row.

However, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Authority (Affa) have granted West Kenya another chance to present their case before the matter is taken back to the Court of Appeal in Kisumu for a final decision on whether Butali should be allowed to operate alongside West Kenya.

The arbitration meeting followed an order by the Appeal court directing Affa to broker a truce between the two sugar millers.

The meeting was held at Malava Friends Church and was attended by the area MP, sugar out-grower companies, farmers, Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale, Deputy Governor Philip Kutima and representatives from the county government.

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Despite the absence of representatives from West Kenya, it was unanimously resolved that both factories should be allowed to operate.

In the resolutions read by Dr Khalwale, it was agreed that Butali should be granted a licence to operate in the area.

“Having the two operate has resulted in better pay for farmers,” read part of the resolutions.

Khalwale said there was no justification for closing down Butali, adding that the miller had even built schools and health facilities in the county.

He said the potential of cane farming in the region was yet to be fully exploited hence the need to allow both factories to operate.

“We resolve that both factories should be allowed to operate without any delay,” he said.

Affa boss Alfred Busolo said they acted within the requirements of the court order, which requested that the matter be subjected to a public hearing.

He said the resolutions were binding despite the absence of West Kenya representatives as all stakeholders had been involved in the meeting.

The Kakamega government, through Governor Philip Kutima, said agriculture was now a devolved function and they would work to ensure that farmers benefited from cane farming.

“The county government is ready to go to court to fight for farmers,” he said. West Kenya had accused Butali of invading its turf.