President Willian Ruto on Wednesday, August 2 assured Kenyans that the price of sugar will drop later this month.
Speaking at State House on Wednesday, Dr Ruto attributed the high prices of the commodity to a shortage of cane in the local and COMESA markets.
The President explained that many factories in the country had temporarily closed down due to the unavailability of raw materials, forcing many retailers to sell the additive at Sh225 per kilogramme.
“I agree that there is concern around sugar. Many companies have closed shop because there is no cane to harvest. We’ve had confusion and chaos in the whole sugar sub-sector and we are streamlining that sector because the whole sugarcane sector has been riddled with all manner of confusion and poaching of sugarcane from one corner to another,” the president said.
“The other is everybody is refusing to work in accordance with the law in fact the reason why many sugar companies have closed shop temporarily is because there is no cane to harvest. They were even harvesting cane that is not mature.”
Ruto said the government is now taking decisive action by implementing measures to organize and enhance the sector.
“We have been reluctant to import sugar to avoid working against our farmers, but now, in the next two weeks, you will see a difference as we have ordered imports from outside the COMESA market,” he added.
President Ruto said that they have already awarded licences for the importation of sugar, and prices should be going down soon.
“By mid of this month, we will see a different situation pertaining to sugar because that is when we expect the first stocks of sugar to come into the country,” the President said.
