Farmers in Kiambu are requesting assistance from the national government as they stand to lose Ksh.100 million from the World Bank intended to pay for the purchase of an Ultra Heated Treated (UHT) milk processing plant.
This follows the World Bank’s threat to revoke its guarantee of Ksh.100 million to help partially finance the acquisition of the milk processing machine, which is anticipated to cost a total of Ksh.145 million.
The Kiambu County Government and the farmers were tasked with raising the last Ksh.45 million. Since then, the initiative has received a total contribution of Ksh.15 million from the dairy farmers in Kiambu. The county administration has failed to contribute the last Ksh.30 million needed to finish the project, though.
Farmers worry that additional delays may cause the World Bank to withdraw its Ksh.100 million funding since the project has already halted.
The Limuru Dairy Farmers Cooperative Society’s manager, Bedan Kamau, claims that the World Bank gave the facility management a deadline of December of last year to have complied with the conditions of the agreement.
“The machine costs Ksh.145 million and the WB had already committed to granting us Ksh.100 million and the farmers have also put aside Ksh.15 million, it is only the county government that is yet to honour its pledge of Ksh.30 million thereby jeopardising the project,” said Kamau.
He continued by saying that in order to allow the county administration more time to keep its word, local officials had asked for a deadline extension.
“We went to the Governor’s office and we agreed that he would take up the matter which had been agreed upon in 2019 during governor James Nyoro’s reign, and he assuredly told my team that all will be well but the delay we are noticing is worrisome, ” he said.
The farmers from Limuru, Kikuyu, Lari and Kabete sub-counties are pleading with President William Ruto to intervene since the World Bank funding was through the National Agricultural and Rural Inclusive project which is under the National Government
“We are calling upon President Ruto to help ensure the success of this project since it will save us from the middle man who buy our milk at a very low price since the dairy cooperation has no capacity to take all our milk,” Enoch Waciuri ,a dairy farmer in Limuru, said.
The delay, according to Limuru’s MP Kiragu Chege, is concerning since it means that farmers would be forced into poverty when the World Bank ends its funding for the project.
“Dairy farming is the backbone of our people’s economy and the installation of the UHT machine can add value to our farmers’ milk and increase productivity,” he said.
The initiative would have improved the financial situation of the Limuru dairy farmers cooperative, which is held entirely by smallholder farmers, who account for around 80% of the nation’s milk producers.
