By Kepher Otieno - Reporter
Kenya, 16 August 2026 - Kenya’s sugar farmers are heading into a closely watched election that could reshape who speaks for growers as the government moves to tighten control of imports, revive local production and complete reforms in the sector.
Five grower directors are due to be elected to the Kenya Sugar Board on 5 September 2026, turning what might ordinarily have been a technical industry poll into a contest over influence, farmer incomes and the future direction of one of Kenya’s most politically sensitive agricultural industries.
Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has already set the tone.
He has reaffirmed a ban on sugar imports and ordered the Kenya Sugar Board not to issue new import licences, arguing that domestic production is now sufficient to meet local demand.
Kagwe said imports had fallen to about 60,000 metric tonnes this year from roughly 210,000 tonnes last year. He attributed part of the decline to a KSh 40 per kilogramme excise duty introduced under the Finance Act, 2026.
The government now wants Kenya to move from being a regular sugar importer towards becoming an exporter.
That ambition has raised the stakes around the Sugar Board elections.
The five seats will complete the Board's membership under the Sugar Act, 2024, allowing it to fully exercise its statutory mandate. Board decisions will include critical issues such as management of the Sugar Development Levy.
The campaign has already moved deep into the sugar-growing zones.
In the Central Catchment Area, Samwel Onyango Ong’ow, Jared Omulo Okowa, Moses Kibet Biegon, Andrew Kipngeno Bett and Richard Ochieng Ogendo are competing for the grower-director position.
Ong’ow is campaigning on a farmers-first platform and has been traversing cane-growing areas seeking support. His message centres on restoring growers' bargaining power and ensuring their interests are represented at the highest level of the industry.
Ogendo, Bett, Okowa and Biegon are also mounting active campaigns, promising farmers stronger representation and better returns.
The Southern Catchment Area is shaping up as another fiercely contested battlefield.
John Ole Karaam, Dr Iscar Atieno Oluoch, Bishop Peter Otieno Midodo, John Masiantet Seini and Joseph Lenteiyian Ole Kasae are seeking the seat covering an expansive zone that includes the Sony sugar belt, Transmara and Sukari-linked growers.
Midodo has built a visible grassroots campaign, while Oluoch, Seini, Lenteiyian and Kasae have intensified their mobilisation among farmers.
In the Upper Western Catchment Area, Wekesa Christopher Sifuna, Ronald Mwenda Inyangala, Nelson Shilunji Taliti, James Mutele Weindaba and Musa Wangila Makhabila are competing.
Taliti has been particularly active, campaigning across sugar-growing areas including Uasin Gishu, Nandi and Bungoma. His platform focuses on improving farmer returns and strengthening the relationship between growers and millers.
Weindaba is also seeking support on a platform of stronger farmer participation and a more responsive Sugar Board.
The Lower Western race brings together Elizabeth Akinyi Apopo, Janet Barasa, Eliud Wafula Maelo and Billy Wanjala Mukenya.
The region includes the Mumias, Nzoia, Butali and West Kenya sugar belts, making the contest strategically important.
Barasa has attracted significant grassroots mobilisation as she seeks to consolidate support among growers.
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The Coastal Catchment Area has one shortlisted candidate, Daniel Sila Kitivo, competing for the position covering the Kwale sugar zone.
The elections come against a backdrop of deep frustration among farmers over delayed payments, cane prices, miller efficiency, imports and accumulated industry debts.
Kagwe said the government had reduced its outstanding sugar-farmer debt to about KSh 265 million from nearly KSh 2 billion and promised to clear the balance.
"My happiest day will be when Government owes sugar farmers absolutely nothing," he said.
He has also moved to tighten licensing of new sugar factories, saying prospective millers must demonstrate access to nucleus estates and contracted outgrowers before receiving licences.
That is aimed partly at curbing cane poaching, a long-running source of tension between millers.
Farmers are also demanding a greater say in how the Sugar Development Levy is spent, including funding for roads, cane development and farmer organisations.
They want predictable cane prices and faster payments.
Kagwe has cautioned, however, that pricing must balance the interests of farmers, millers and consumers.
"If nobody is completely satisfied, then it is probably a fair price because we must balance the interests of all the players," he said.
The election itself has already been delayed once, after legal challenges disrupted an earlier timetable.
Farmer organisations now insist that the grower representatives must be elected rather than nominated.
The Kenya National Federation of Sugarcane Farmers has backed the polls, with Secretary General Kilion Osur saying growers have waited too long for implementation of the Sugar Act.
The politics around the election is therefore broader than five boardroom seats.
The winners will inherit a sector undergoing structural change, with the government seeking to protect domestic production while demanding greater efficiency from millers and better returns for growers.
For candidates, the challenge is straightforward: convince farmers that representation can translate into higher incomes, reliable payments and a stronger voice in policy.
For farmers, the 5 September 2026 vote offers a rare opportunity to directly influence the institution expected to regulate their industry.
The Sugar Board race is no longer merely an administrative exercise.
It has become a test of who will control the farmers' voice as Kenya attempts to write a more profitable chapter in its long-troubled sugar story.