West Kenya Sugar Company, the miller behind the Kabras brand and controlled by tycoon Jaswant Rai's family, is planning a Sh4.2 billion sugar factory in Chesumei Sub-County, Nandi County, in a move that would extend the group's reach into the North Rift and bring the number of mills under the Rai family to seven.

According to project details reported by Business Daily and Billionaires.Africa, the plant will initially crush 1,500 tonnes of cane a day, with room to double that to 3,000 tonnes as cane supply grows. At about $32 million, it is one of the larger greenfield sugar investments announced this year.

Cane from local farmers

The company says the factory is meant to expand cane processing capacity in the North Rift sugar belt, give farmers in the area a new buyer for their crop and create direct and indirect jobs. Like its flagship Kabras mill, the new factory will rely mainly on smallholder outgrowers rather than a large company-owned estate, sourcing cane through leases and partnerships with local farmers.

West Kenya says it already has more than 30,000 acres under sugarcane development with such farmers. The project involves a significant change in land use in the area. No construction timeline has been made public.

A growing empire

Once running, the Nandi plant would join the group's mills at Kabras in Kakamega, Sukari Industries in Ndhiwa (Homa Bay), Nambale in Busia, Naitiri and Olepito in Bungoma, and Nzoia, which West Kenya took over in 2025 under a 30-year lease from the State. Billionaires.Africa puts the family's combined crushing capacity at more than 18,000 tonnes of cane a day once the new mill is added, about half of Kenya's private milling capacity.

The Nzoia lease was part of a government drive to hand ailing State mills to private operators. Chemelil went to Kibos Sugar and Allied Industries and Muhoroni to West Valley Sugar Company, while the lease of Mumias to Sarrai Group stalled in court.

Shift away from the old sugar belt

The Nandi project reflects a wider trend in the industry. Business Daily reports that most of the greenfield sugar factory projects worth more than Sh15 billion are now in Narok, Nandi and Kericho counties, rather than in the traditional cane zones of Nyando, Mumias, Migori, Homa Bay and Kakamega. Other recent plans include a Sh1.5 billion Tinderet factory in Nandi and a Sh1.46 billion Kipenzi Sugar plant in Siaya.

The expansion comes as local output recovers. Kenya National Bureau of Statistics data show sugar production rose about 22 per cent to 348,143 tonnes between January and May 2026, from 285,418 tonnes a year earlier, while cane deliveries by farmers jumped 25 per cent to 3.9 million tonnes.

Kenya still produces about 200,000 tonnes less sugar a year than it consumes, with the gap filled mainly by imports from the Comesa region. That deficit is why investors still see room for new mills, despite long-running complaints in the industry about too many factories chasing too little cane and the poaching of farmers' crops between millers.

Photos: Business Daily / Nation Media Group (Jaswant Rai); SuSanA Secretariat / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). Thumbnail design: HAMASTA MEDIA.