226 traders in the soup over maize scandal
Trucks deliver maize to the National Cereals and Produce Board’s Eldoret depot on April 16, 2018. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The 226 were flagged after a three-month verification of farmers who supplied their produce to the cereals board last year.
- The Council of Governors wants the NCPB restructured and more resources devolved to tackle problems in the maize sector.
Police are investigating 226 businessmen who were paid millions of shillings by the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) illegally.
Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa said the traders posed as genuine farmers and received money irregularly. Their names have been sent to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.
The 226 were flagged after a three-month verification of farmers who supplied their produce to the cereals board last year, following claims of illegal payments to traders as opposed to farmers.
“This verification was necessary. We needed to go into the claims one by one and verify who the genuine farmers are, and who are not,” Mr Wamalwa told journalists in his Nairobi office on Friday.
DEBT
He announced that 900 farmers will from Monday be paid Sh1.4 billion for their maize.
“We will start paying 514 small-scale farmers who are owed Sh2 million and below, coming to a total of Sh466 million before we deal with the bigger farmers,” Mr Wamalwa said.
Meanwhile in Nandi, the Council of Governors wants the NCPB restructured and more resources devolved to tackle problems in the maize sector.
The council also wants national government to allow counties to register farmers, buy and distribute fertiliser.
Nandi Governor Stephen Sang, who presented a petition to the Senate ad hoc committee on maize at Mosop, said the national government is holding onto billions of shillings yet agriculture is a devolved sector.
"What is the business of the national government in registration of farmers yet agriculture is devolved,” the governor said in direct reference to an announcement in May by Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri that all farmers will be registered.
SUPPLY
Mr Sang said the government has allocated Sh56 billion to the agriculture ministry although 95 percent of activities under it are handled by counties.
"It has the highest number of parastatals yet they don't perform. It is time the national government released resources associated with agriculture to counties," he said.
Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang’ula said some traders supplied several bags to various depots.
"In Bungoma, for instance, we discovered that a single farmer claimed to own 800 acres yet that is not true. Few farmers own more than 100 acres. These farmers have been promptly paid 19 times leaving out others who we believe are genuine."
