Kenya faces a chronic structural deficit, consuming roughly 1.1 million metric tons of sugar annually while producing barely 600,000 tonnes.
By
Jaindi Kisero
Columnist
Trade and regulatory arbitrage are becoming the new frontier for grand corruption in Kenya. Consider what Parliament has just done to the sugar industry.
Under the populist banner of "protecting local millers and sugarcane farmers," the Finance Act 2026 aggressively increases excise duty on imported finished table sugar from Sh7.50 to a punishing Sh40 per kilogramme.
New sugar import tax proposal raises price, supply concerns
Why locally produced sugar is missing from retail outlets’ shelves
Tax relief offered as government revises the Finance Bill 2026
Hotbed of corruption: How Kenya's elite have captured the state
Kenya's sugar industry exemplifies how political elites extract rents through state controls, as President William Ruto's reforms…
A proposed increase in import taxes on sugar is expected to raise consumer prices and spark supply concerns, as Kenya continues…
Questions have emerged on the safety of thousands of tonnes of imported raw sugar after MPs flagged missing information on its…
Parliament has launched an investigation into the importation, movement and safety of a controversial consignment of 27,000…
When the law treats a fully built import more favourably than a raw component destined for domestic manufacturing, something has…
For decades, Kenya’s coffee industry has struggled with declining acreage, delayed farmer payments, weak cooperative governance,…
