Dairy company Kenya Cooperative Creameries 2000 and KCC Holdings have officially transferred their assets and business to the Kenyan government, according to the Nation newspaper.
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New KCC chairman Matu Wamae said KCC 2000 and KCC Holdings had been paid 547m shillings (US$7.2m) by the government. The firms were supposed to hand over to the state title deeds to eleven processing plants countrywide.
After KCC’s collapse in the mid-1990s, KCC 2000 and KCC Holdings directors took over the creameries’ management until the government regained control in July 2003.
After the handover, KCC Holdings will be responsible for selling shares while KCC 2000 will run the business.
Wamae said the government had paid a further 90m shillings as interest to KCC 2000 and KCC Holdings and settled any claims the firms had against the Government.
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By GlobalDataAddressing farmers at Eldoret’s ultra heated treated milk plant, Wamae said the new KCC could not develop because its title deeds were still being held by KCC 2000 and KCC Holdings.
He said that about 100m shillings had been used to rehabilitate KCC factories and that the cooling system in Eldoret was being repaired. The plant has been transporting its milk to Sotik, about 150 kilometres away, for processing due to the broken cooler.
The plant, supposed to be receiving on average 300,000 litres of milk a day was until recently been receiving 7,000 litres. But in the recent past, the figure has risen to 25,000 litres.
Farmer David Mutai said the transport system used to deliver milk to KCC had collapsed. He asked the government to give dairy farmers soft loans with which to revive their grounded vehicles.
“Supplies to New KCC could have improved but since there is no transport, we cannot deliver milk because private dairies are collecting from our doors,” Mr Mutai said.
Farmers in the North Rift region yesterday said milk processing in the area had reduced the buying price for milk from 21 to 19 shillings per litre.
The decline would discourage them from investing in the sub-sector because “the cost of animal husbandry including artificial insemination services are high,” said James Koech of Uasin-Gishu.
And vegetable and fruit farmers in Marakwet District were incurring losses because they could not access markets due to the pathetic state of roads.
