THE Western Development Initiative Association has asked the government to streamline the sugar sector ahead of the expiry of the Comesa safeguard period in March, 2014.

Vice chair Joseph Barasa in a statement said the government should speed up the privatisation of sugar factories.

"People are losing jobs and the country's economy being affected because most factories have not diversified," said Barasa in a statement he issued on Sunday.

He said that even Mumias Sugar Company in which only owns 20 percent of shares has already diversified but the uncontrolled poaching of its cane would affect its operations.

Barasa accused the Kenya Sugar Board has totally messed up the sugar sector in the sense that if indeed the expiry is realized then a number of sugar millers will close shop.

KSB has licensed so many millers without adhering to its own regulations of ensuring adequate cane development before licensing a miller thereby leading to a scramble for the available raw materials.

The chairman of the parliamentary committee on agriculture Ayub Savula has said the government only has six months to privatize the sugar sector.

The Lugari MP said quick privatization of the government owned factories would provide a window for Kenya to request for extension of the Comesa safeguards by a year to allow it restructure her sugar industry.

Savula said the eight years granted by the regional bloc to Kenya to restructure the sector as wasted because nothing happened.

Yesterday, Barasa however, said the opening of the Comesa flood gates will benefit common Kenyan who will access sugar at affordable prices as cheap sugar imports will flood the market.