Aruba Dairy Farmers Raise Complains to KCC Over Unpaid Dues

By Benson Aswani.

Dairy farmers from Aruba area in Trans nzoia county on Wednesday 27th March went to the streets demonstrating over unpaid dues by Kenya Creameries Cooperation(KCC).

The farmers who organized the demonstration stated that the milk company has not paid their money for four months despite consistently delivering milk to the company.

The team led by Simon Wekesa, the farmers said that despite delivering milk to the KCC dairy company, the company has not paid them since November last year.

While adressing the media,Wekesa said farmers are going through a difficult situation due to the rising cost of feed for their livestock.

“We have been delivering milk to this company for some time now, and since last November it has not paid us our money. Now we are going through a difficult situation because we have to pay our workers as well as buy animal feed, but we don’t have money,” said Wekesa.

Likewise, the farmers highlighted that despite the president’s order that they should be paid the money, the KCC company has not taken any action so far and that it has remained committed every time they present their complaints to the management of the company.

“The president gave an order for the company to pay us our money, but so far no action has been taken to ensure that we are paid,” he said.

On the other hand, a similar situation is witnessed by the milk transporters to the company’s factories led by Josephat Wabwire, who called on the government to intervene to ensure that they are paid their money.

“We used to transport milk to the KCC company but now it has become difficult to run our daily activities due to lack of funds. The vehicles we use to transport milk are for loans and may be confiscated,” said Wabwire.

However, efforts to get a statement from the company’s management regarding the farmers’ grievances were in vain after the management refused to speak to the media.