Revealed: Sh150 million maize scandal

• Some of the maize which was meant to cushion Kenyans against rising maize flour prices and a looming famine, may be on its way to Southern Sudan.
• KACC's investigation of an earlier maize-related scandal at NCPB in which crooked businessmen posing as millers were allocated hundreds of thousands of bags of maize to be concluded on Wednesday.
• NCPB Managing Director is reported to have distanced himself from the 80,000-bag allocation list even as some of his managers blamed a group of people at the Board for the situation.

In one instance, a miller inflated his capacity to mill 100 bags of maize per hour although his firm was a small establishment that could hardly mill 10 bags of maize in the same period.
Nakuru-based Beada Millers is listed as having the capacity to mill 96 bags per hour.

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However, when the Sunday Nation sought to know the hourly capacity of the mill, it turned out that it was 10 bags.

According to NCPB documents, Beada Millers applied for 23,040 bags of maize for 10 days; Beada was allocated 7,221 bags, or about 31 per cent of the firm’s stated capacity. The firm was asked to pay for 7,320 bags.

Another Nakuru miller, Valley Posho Mill, claimed a 100-bag per hour capacity at a mill in the Kenya Industrial Estates premises.But efforts to inspect the mill were thwarted by employees who said they needed authorisation from the proprietor, a Mr Kamau.

The mill, whose declared 10-day capacity was 23,000 bags of maize, was allocated 7,221 bags.

When contacted by telephone, Mr Kamau declined to state the capacity of his mill or say whether he had collected his allocation. He accused the Sunday Nation of acting at the behest of “Asian millers”.

Temusi Millers, which claims to be located in Ongata Rongai, listed its milling capacity at 100 bags per hour. But industry sources said a mill with such capacity should be known as one of the country’s big millers.

The proprietor refused to disclose the location or the capacity of the mill over the telephone and did not show up for an arranged meeting.

Telephone call

In a subsequent telephone call, a woman who identified herself as S. Magelo, a company director, said NCPB officials had asked them to inflate their milling capacity. “We were asked to put our capacity at 100 bags per hour although it is not that much,” she said. She, too, refused to state the mill’s real capacity or its location.

Temusi Millers were allocated 7,521 bags of maize for 10 days, based on its claim to be able to mill 10,000 bags a day.

NCPB also allocated the defunct Milling Corporation 12,185 bags of maize in the last week of 2008 based on its stated capacity to mill 162 bags per hour, or 38,880 in 10 days. The miller has not produced its Ugali brand of maize flour since last August.

NCPB Managing Director Prof Gideon Misoi is reported to have distanced himself from the 80,000-bag allocation list even as some of his managers said a group of people at the Board’s headquarters was responsible for the situation.

According to informed sources, the “millers” who had been allocated the large quantities are businessmen who either wanted to sell the maize to Southern Sudan or to act as middlemen for real millers.

Among the genuine millers who collected part of their allocations include Uchumi Grain Millers who had been given an allocation of 2,106 bags. Last Friday they were still awaiting their final batch.