In a clearing on Kenya's coastal grasslands, a group of nomadic herders shout down government officials who have flown in from Nairobi to explain the benefits of a proposed $350 million sugar project.

"If the delta is planted with sugar, we will run out of grazing land for our cattle," local community leader Bile Bundit said. Others wave placards at the flustered officials sitting in a makeshift tent made from wooden poles and sack-cloth.

Hoping to plug Kenya's annual 200,000-ton sugar deficit and make biofuel, the government, together with the nation's largest miller Mumias, plans to plant cane on 20,000 hectares of the vast Tana River Delta on the Indian Ocean coast.