Sugarcane growers in Western Kenya Zone want the county government to suspend collection of agricultural produce cess from them.
Through their West Kenya Outgrowers board of directors, they said the levy should not be remitted by two mills within the zone by February 15.
The boycott will apply if Malava constituency, which hosts the West Kenya Sugar and Butali Sugar Mills, will not have received cess so far remitted by the two companies for road maintenance.
Weko board of directors chairman, Joseph Musanga, said Malava has been neglected by the county government in terms of development, despite them paying the levy.
“We need proper financial records of the cess remitted by the two factories between July 1, 2022 and December 31, 2024 before end of this month, failing which we shall resort to legal means to ensure the region receives its rightful share of infrastructure development,” Musanga said in a statement.
All feeder roads within Malava are impassable and a “social economic disaster”, he said, adding that elected representatives of Malava at the national and county legislative organs are “either asleep or severely compromised”.
Acting CEC for Agriculture and Livestock, Mophat Mandela, denied claims that Malava had been neglected. He said the county has been and continues maintaining roads without favour and that the bad state of roads in sugarcane growing areas was a result of overuse by heavy trucks.
The county spent Sh10 million to maintain roads in each of the 60 wards, including the seven wards in Malava subcounty.
“There are no weigh bridges on our roads and we can’t establish the tonnage being hauled on our roads. Even the remitted cess the county collects is based on the disclosure by milling factories,” Mandela said.
“Payment of taxes is not condition al but obligatory. Giving ultimatums won’t solve a problem. What is required is a conversation between the county government and the factories to come up with a solution,” he added.
The Kakamega Agricultural Produce Cess Act, 2019, provides for a
fine of Sh3 million for a processing
plant that fails to deduct and remit
cess levy to the county.
