KENYA – Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru has asked the National Government to allow rice farmers from the county to buy the 55% stake in Mwea Rice Mills (MRM) when it is offered for privatization.
The company is one of the 11 state agencies listed for privatization by the national government, which sparked a lot of reactions from rice farmers and leaders across the country.
Mwea Rice Mills is a limited liability company owned jointly by the Irrigation Authority (55 percent) and Mwea Rice Farmers through Mwea Rice Growers Multipurpose Co-operative Society Limited (45 percent).
Speaking during the Jamhuri day celebrations Waiguru said the government does not run businesses and therefore MRM factory should be sold to the rice farmers.
Waiguru said since farmers own 45 percent of MRM, it is only logical that they are given the priority to buy the 55 percent the national government owns in the facility.
The Governor said the County government will help the farmers in acquiring the National Government shares so that they can run the factory.
“In so doing, the farmers will operate and manage the mill to be a profit-making venture, providing an avenue for the farmers to gain economic independence.
As a county, we will make sure that any agreements done, will leave our rice farmers more empowered and not feeling disenfranchised,” Waiguru said.
She asked farmers to organize themselves and join rice cooperatives to pool resources and buy the facility.
Waiguru said the farmers stand to reap more by supporting the initiative by the government to make the rice mills self-sustaining and a profit-making facility.
“It is, therefore, my duty to advise the farmers to place themselves strategically to take up the offer to buy the government shares when that time comes,” opined Waiguru.
The governor also highlighted that the administration is on course to control the Golden Apple Snail that has been ravaging rice crops at the Mwea irrigation scheme.
Earlier, the Ministry of Agriculture launched a three-week pilot program to control a new migratory rice pest, apple snails, at the irrigation scheme.
The move followed a warning by scientists, led by Kate Constantine, Project Scientist at CABI, who raised an alarm regarding the apple snail invasion in the country’s largest rice irrigation scheme after a CABI-led study published in the journal Pest Management Science.
According to the study, extension agents stated apple snails as one of farmers’ top five complaints and agro-dealers reported that 70% of complaints daily were due to apple snails.
Studies report that the Apple snail is listed among ‘100 of the world’s worst invasive invertebrates of waterways and irrigation systems.
However, Waiguru revealed that the pilot program was not very successful, and therefore in collaboration with the National Government and researchers, they have gone back to the drawing board and are working around the clock to get a cure for the snails.
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