How Mwai Kibaki transformed dairy sector
Former President Mwai Kibaki accompanied by First Lady Lucy Kibaki tour the New KCC Miritini factory in 2006
As dairy farmers who deliver their milk to New KCC enjoy a Sh5 billion annual payment, not many know this dividend was launched by the late President Mwai Kibaki.
It was during President Kibaki’s tenure that the revival of the dairy sector gathered momentum. The farmers’ earnings per litre of milk rose from Sh8 to Sh45.
"This is a lifetime gift that the dairy farmers will remember for many decades even as the late President Kibaki's journey enters its home stretch," said Mr Moses Kemboi a dairy farmer in Kuresoi South in Nakuru County.
“The vibrant dairy sector today can be traced back to late President Kibaki's pragmatic leadership," said Ms Joyce Karuga, a dairy farmer in Bahati, Nakuru County.
“The dairy farmers at the New KCC will forever be indebted to the late President Kibaki as he made sure the farmers enjoyed the fruits of their hard labour by streamlining the dairy sector, " said Mr Joshua Iregi a dairy farmer in Trans Nzoia
Wealth creation
The dairy farmers fondly remember how in 2003 as the President he launched the Economic Recovery Strategy for wealth and employment creation.
“Before 2003, KCC had been taken over by private ventures under the control of few entities but in May of the same year, the newly established National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) government led by President Kibaki bought KCC at Sh547 million and reverted its assets to the government as a wholly-owned state corporation. The government renamed it New Kenya Cooperative Creameries Ltd," recalls New KCC Managing Director Nixon Sigey.
Mr Sigey said that Kibaki's pragmatic leadership saw farmers improve their dairy practices by meeting acceptable quality standards.
The MD recalls that it was during the late President Kibaki's tenure that KCC embarked on a rapid expansion programme that was vital to establishing a countrywide network of processing factories and cooling plants that enabled the entity to fulfil its new role.
Milk processing
The late President Kibaki ensured that KCC had modern infrastructure and in November 1968, when he was the Minister for Commerce and Industry, he launched the new plant in Nairobi's Industrial Area that is today known as Creamery House which later became its headquarters.
The late president is remembered by dairy farmers for launching other factories across the country in Kitale, Nyahururu and Miritini and endorsed the liberalisation of the dairy industry in 1992 when he was Finance and Economic Planning Minister.
Today, many dairy farmers agree that the Kenya dairy industry is growing with many farmers and private sector players investing in milk processing due to the good foundation laid by the late president.
“The modernisation of New KCC by the Jubilee Administration under the manufacturing pillar as stipulated in Big Four Agenda has contributed to enhanced capacity and farmers are now earning good dividends," said Mr Sigey.
