NCPB denies involvement in sale of relief food

The National Cereals and Produce Board on Saturday denied involvement in the sale of relief food in Samburu and accused the county government of dragging it in the mess.

NCPB Managing Director Newton Terer said the board was not involved in the distribution of relief food and termed reports implicating it in the scandal as misleading.

Mr Terer said the devolved government bought 8,000 bags from NCPB which were yet to be collected.

He said the Samburu County government paid Sh11.1 million for the stock “that is still lying at our Maralal depot”.

“If there is any irregularity in the distribution, it has nothing to do with us,” Mr Terer said by phone.

“When you purchase maize from us, what you do with it is not our business,” he added as he denied that the stock belonging to the county government was being sold.

In an interview with the Sunday Nation, Mr Terer said the board never deals in sorghum and rice as the story implied.

He said part of the NCPB Maralal depot was leased to a Ramati, an NGO, which is using it to store the county government’s relief food.

“That is not our stock. We don’t know where it came from,” he said.

There has been concern about the devolved unit’s sluggish response to the famine, almost a month after the National Drought Management Authority said 54,000 people were at risk of starvation.

"They should not drag us into the mess. If they are giving food to the wrong people, let them answer to that,” he said.

Maralal depot manager Kipng’etich Mutahi said his team was waiting for county officials to collect the maize.