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In l97l, after four years of studies, the Kenya
government commissioned Booker Agriculture
International (now part of Booker Tate) to carry
out the Mumias sugar project. The Mumias district
of Kenya’s Western Province was heavily populated
but underdeveloped. Farmers grew subsistence crops
on small plots, but most of the land was bush or
rough grazing.
The Mumias Sugar Company (MSC) factory, mainly
paid for by the Kenya government and the
Commonwealth Development Corporation, with some
British overseas aid, opened in 1973. It could then
produce 45,000 tonnes of sugar a year. Half the
cane was from MSC’s nucleus estate, and half from
small-farmer outgrowers whom MSC helped technically
and financially.
The factory can now produce 220,000 tonnes of
sugar a year, making it one of Africa’s largest.
The factory generates its own power by burning the
bagasse left over after the cane has been crushed.
Factory waste-water, after processing, is clean
enough for fish to thrive in it.
About nine-tenths of the cane comes from 33,000
outgrowers, spread over an area the size of Greater
London. The deep roots of cane and the ground cover
it provides have protected the soil from erosion.
Plant material is put back in the soil and
fertiliser is used only to the extent it gives a
clear advantage. Food crops were at first neglected
but are now increasingly grown.
MSC has 5,400 permanent employees, with a
further 9,200 casual workers who harvest the cane.
More than 250,000 people depend on the project for
their living. Initially, expatriates held most
senior jobs. Now Kenyans head all five departments,
the only expatriates being the general manager and
agricultural workshop manager.
About 1,500 miles of roads and tracks have been
built, with help from British overseas aid. Over
3,000 homes have been built, plus a social centre
and a sports complex which provides a home for the
Mumias first-division football team. The schools,
assisted by MSC, achieve such good exam results
that MSC gets job applications from people who want
their children to go there. The project’s
profitability has made the social spending
possible.
Mumias Town has expanded with banks, power,
telephones, health care. Water supply is improved.
The people of Mumias district take pride in the
project and are determined to see its benefits
passed on to their children.
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