Nairobi, Oct. 8 -- I attended an event in Nairobi on Thursday convened by the Kenya Sugar Board and billed as a "consultative stakeholder meeting" on the availability and use of locally refined white sugar.

I expected a routine discussion on agricultural policy. Instead, I found what looked like an attempt to legitimise a glaring contradiction: a punitive tax regime that shields one private enterprise while imposing crippling costs on Kenya's wider food and beverage manufacturing sector.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Business Daily....