{"id":66543,"date":"2026-06-19T16:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T16:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/66543\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T16:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T16:08:11","slug":"cs-kagwe-kenya-eyes-sugar-factories-as-new-sources-of-electricity-and-biofuel-dawan-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/66543\/","title":{"rendered":"CS Kagwe: Kenya Eyes Sugar Factories as New Sources of Electricity and Biofuel | Dawan Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kenya, June 19, 2026 – The Ministry of Agriculture is pushing to transform the sugar industry into a major producer of electricity and biofuel, with sugar factories set to supply power to the national grid.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Speaking during a visit to West Valley Sugar Company, Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe is engaging the Ministry of Energy to establish frameworks that will enable sugar factories to sell electricity generated from bagasse, a by-product of sugar processing, to the national grid.<\/p>\n

Kagwe added that the government will introduce policy and fiscal incentives to encourage millers to invest in ethanol distillation plants and other value-added projects.<\/p>\n

According to the CS, the future of the sugar sector in the country depends on maximising every component of\u00a0sugarcane\u00a0to produce sugar, electricity, ethanol, and other industrial products.<\/p>\n

“West Valley is producing five megawatts of electricity with only a fraction of its bagasse. If the factory operated at full capacity, it could generate up to 15 megawatts. This is a fantastic opportunity not only for Kenya but for the region. Our neighbours are already doing this, and there is no reason we should be left behind,” he said.<\/p>\n

Kagwe said that the Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi should formulate policies that will allow sugar factories across the country to sell surplus electricity to the national grid, to strengthen energy security.<\/p>\n

The CS, who described the cogeneration as an untapped economic opportunity, said that it will boost the country\u2019s energy mix as well as generate additional income streams for farmers and millers.<\/p>\n

Apart from electricity generation, the CS said that the\u00a0government will support\u00a0the expansion of ethanol production in the country to reduce fuel imports and save foreign exchange.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The CS \u00a0\u00a0noted that the \u00a0instability in the Middle East experienced this year\u00a0has exposed\u00a0major vulnerabilities in the\u00a0global energy market, thus necessitating the need for Kenya to diversify\u00a0its fuel sources by embracing ethanol blending programmes similar to those implemented in Brazil and India.<\/p>\n

\"AgricultureAgriculture CS Mutahi Kagwe at West Valley Sugar Company, where he pushed for sugar factories to supply electricity to the national grid and expand ethanol production. | CS agriculture<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kenya, June 19, 2026 – The Ministry of Agriculture is pushing to transform the sugar industry into a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[21249],"tags":[2582,31160,21926,31164,31162,31167,21927,31166,31158,31156,31161,31163,31168,31165,3669,345,633,31159,3109,31155,31157,254,20221,2580,18,14],"class_list":["post-66543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-national-grid","tag-africa","tag-african-business","tag-african-culture","tag-african-development","tag-african-economy","tag-african-education","tag-african-entertainment","tag-african-healthcare","tag-african-media","tag-african-news","tag-african-politics","tag-african-society","tag-african-sports","tag-african-technology","tag-analysis","tag-breaking-news","tag-business","tag-continental-news","tag-current-affairs","tag-dawan-africa","tag-east-africa","tag-economy","tag-horn-of-africa","tag-national-grid","tag-news","tag-politics"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116777641813157592","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}