Bura: Communities around the Bura Irrigation Scheme, in Bura constituency, Tana River County, are set to benefit from employment opportunities, infrastructure development of health and education facilities, among others, following a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with investors and the government for large-scale commercial farming of rice and sugarcane.
According to Kenya News Agency, the partnership follows the official launch of a 26-kilometer Bura Gravity Canal that replaced an expensive diesel pump-fed system with a gravity-fed water supply from Kora Kora by President William Ruto earlier this year, and subsequent signing of lease agreements by investors and the government for 100,000 acres.
Among the investors who acquired the lease is Sukari Industries Limited, which has already begun bush clearing and set up seed cane nurseries for commercial sugarcane production within more than 40,000 acres of land allocated in the Irrigation Scheme.
Speaking during a community engagement forum in Chewele village, George Mururi, the Head of External Affairs and Communication for Sukari Industries, stated that the company aims to support the government’s efforts in job creation and food production.
Mururi emphasized the investor’s commitment to collaborating closely with local citizens for the project’s success, adding that hundreds of locals will be employed at the farm and the sugarcane crushing factory to be established, thereby enhancing livelihoods and the local economy.
“Our objective is to support, complement, and supplement governmental efforts in relation to creation of employment, the expansion of business opportunities, the engagement of the unemployed youth, and so on. We believe firmly that for us to register any form of success, we need to work and walk with the community and that is what brought us here, first to unveil the project and to have a conversation with the people of Chewele,” Mururi said.
“We have been allocated slightly over 40,000 acres; at the moment, we have started bush clearing and cleared around 700 acres for seed cane development, which will later be transplanted into the other acres. We shall also be considering putting up a crushing facility because we are unable to evacuate those raw materials to any of our factories elsewhere,” he added.
According to the investor, with continued support from local communities and leaders, the setup of the entire farming and crushing facility is expected to be completed within the next 18 months, with an anticipated output of at least 5,000 tonnes of sugarcane per phase.
Ramadhani Babisana, the king of the Wailwana community in the area, urged residents to support the investors and allow them to operate smoothly for community benefit. He noted that while the land belonged to the community, there was a lack of capacity for large-scale commercial farming, necessitating the presence of companies that could invest and, in turn, offer employment and development projects.
Babisani also called on other surrounding communities to offer similar support to all investors and avoid politicizing the projects. “We have had a very fruitful engagement with the investor on various issues, and as a community, we receive this company so that we can start working together. They have promised that there will be enough employment opportunities for our community, together with other infrastructural development,” Babisani said.
“I also urge the other communities who are our neighbors to support these investments. When the President came to launch the gravity canal project, he said that this project would be the food basket for the country, and now it is becoming evident,” he added.
