Alarm over shortage and cost of maize flour

• Price of staple meal has shot up in the last one week and is too high for the poor

At Woolmart Supermarkets, customers were asked not to pick more than five packets of the product.

In Kakamega, shoppers at Walias Supermarket were restricted to buying a maximum of three packets.

And in Nyeri South District, officials at Aberdares Flour Millers said they were shopping for maize in Kitale because most farmers in the region experienced low harvests this season.

In Busia, Mr Harrison Kibuye, a manager at Jamii Supermarket, said wholesale traders were hoarding flour in anticipation of much higher prices.

The shortage has also spilled to neighbouring Uganda where a packet is now being sold for Sh140, forcing some residents to cross the border and buy the commodity in Kenya.

Meanwhile, the permanent secretary in the Special Programmes ministry, Mr Ali Mohammed, said he had called an urgent meeting for the National Cereals and Produce Board trustees to find a way to end the shortage. The meeting is to be held Monday afternoon.

“I have convened an urgent meeting to review the situation and see what is causing the scarcity... I have told my colleagues that this is not acceptable and we must be able to intervene,” said the PS, who arrived in the country on Sunday after a trip abroad.

It has also emerged that three ministries had stopped the cereals board from selling maize to private millers. The board ratified the decision two weeks ago, and this is believed to be one of the reasons for the shortage.

Besides stocking up supplies for national strategic reserves, the board is authorised to sell maize commercially, but Agriculture, Special Programmes and Finance ministries stopped them from doing so.

To buy maize from the board, one needs a special letter from the Government. But it was not clear what criterion is used to decides who gets the letter.

According to some millers, the decision had led to the formation of a cartel linked to a senior government official.

Without sweat

“They usually buy the commodity at about Sh1,900 per 90-kg bag and sell the same at Sh2,600 without a sweat,” said one miller who asked not to be named. He said the cartel was earning millions of shillings by creating artificial shortage.

But, Mr Odinga who spoke at Wilson Airport on arrival from Mombasa, said the Government could not stop the cereals board from selling maize to millers, saying, NCPB was supposed to sell maize and use the cash to re-stock.

“I am not aware of any decision to bar it from selling. We will never do that as a Government. We want to ease the suffering of the people,” he said.