Mkulima Moments: New rip-off pushes farmers to the edge

Mutua Agrovet, the newest business enterprise at the Mashambani Trading Centre, has started to go in the wrong direction.

Since the rains began, farmers have been flocking the agrovet after word went round that it offers good discounts.

Mutua, the operator from Matuu, has been struggling to shed a link to Kiambati, the SMS con scheme man.

Luckily, after denying vehemently he knows Kiambati, villagers have ceased asking him about his whereabouts and are learning to live with the useless SMSs on a variety of farming topics.

“If you don’t have credit, the SMS won’t come,” Wakageorge, the owner of Check Point Hotel advised.

But Muchiri, Mzee Jeremiah’s farm boy, disagreed. “When you load airtime of let’s say Sh50, more than five SMS come in gobbling your Sh25.”

He added, “Only Kiambati will save us from this mess. Ile kitu mbaya ni messages hazina maana. Kama jana wameniambia vile naweza kuza samaki na huku hatuweki samaki.”

Nevertheless, Mutua Agrovet has been as busy as a beehive as farmers flock to buy vegetable and maize seeds and fertiliser.

However, last Wednesday, Kairu Biri, a maize farmer was a distraught man. He bought fertiliser for his two-acre from the agrovet and felt cheated.

Biri normally uses 50kg of fertiliser every season while planting the cereal and remains with some little for his wife’s kitchen garden.

FARMERS' COMPLAINTS

But the fertiliser he bought at Mutua Agrovet did not go round his farm. What even made the whole saga more interesting is that he had applied it himself.

Biri first lamented about his plight to Wakageorge at Checkpoint on Tuesday evening. “I measure my fertiliser with a bottle top, but this time, the sack of fertiliser did not go round,” he said.

Seeing he was not getting any help, Biri visited Mutua Agrovet to enquire. There he met Buda, a cabbage grower having an argument with Mutua.

“These seedlings were not enough for three seedbeds, yet I was the one planting,” Buda said. But you may need to check whether you put more seeds in the rows or if they were longer than you normally do,” Mutua politely told Buda.
Seemingly dissatisfied, Buda left in a huff threatening to call the head office of the seed company.

As Buda left, Biri told Mutua that he had a similar complaint but his was about the fertiliser. He listened carefully before dismissing it. “Sasa Kairu Biri, si uambie watu wako waweke fertiliser mzuri. What am I supposed to do?”

Biri was not amused. “I think you are offering us lesser quantities of things we are buying here. See, this 50kg fertiliser is not full,” Biri said, pointing at a sack.

Mutua challenged him. “I have the scales here…. measure and see. Sometimes you people can be petty.”

Biri took the fertiliser sack and put it on the weighing scales. It read 44.8kg.

BIRI'S BLACKMAIL

Mutua feigned shock. “Let me see,” he said. “This is a new company and their fertiliser is quite good. They have been advertising on TV.”

“It is not about a new company or advertising Mutua, it is about the weight. These fertilisers are less than the declared weight and that is why they are not going round the farm,” Biri said angrily.

Mutua went for his mobile phone and started making frantic calls on some number. “He is mteja, but I will raise the matter with him. Wacha hii iishie hapa,” Mutua pleaded to Biri in a low tone.

“Who is he?” Biri enquired authoritatively.

Trying to defend himself, Mutua said Kiambati, to the shock of Biri.

“Kiambati?” shouted Biri surprised. “This man is still stealing from us.”

Sensing danger, Mutua decided to silence Biri with two bags of fertiliser, and he even delivered them to his farm.

Surprisingly, Biri has remained silent as other farmers are fleeced hoping to use blackmail to get more, but I am waiting for an opportune time to reveal the secret and have the last laugh against Kiambati.