State orders fresh audit on bad maize in NCPB silos

The government has formed an inter-ministerial committee to conduct a fresh audit on the suitability of maize in the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) silos. This comes days after the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) said 63.3 per cent of the maize is unfit for human consumption.
Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri said yesterday the committee will be required to make its recommendations by Friday.

DESTROYED
The committee members are drawn from the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service, the Kenya Livestock Research Organisation, public health, Government chemist, Kebs among others.
“By the end of the week, the team should be able to tell us the actual position of the safety of maize in the stores across the country,” Mr Kiunjuri told the National Assembly's Agriculture Committee.
In October, Kebs wrote to the management of the NCPB indicating that 63.3 per cent of about eight million bags of maize bought from local farmers as well as the imported quantities were unfit for human consumption, and should therefore be destroyed.

CONTAMINATED
Already, the government is planning to destroy 2.1 million bags that are discoloured and infected by aflatoxin and fumonisin.
At least 1.2 million bags are discoloured while 750,000 bags are heavily attacked by weevils. The 240,000 bags imported from Mexico last year at a high moisture content of 14 per cent are infected by aflatoxin, fumonisin among other toxins.
Although Mr Kiunjuri said the discoloured maize may not necessarily have gone bad, the contaminated lot has been separated from the rest.

MOISTURE
The contamination of the maize bought in October last year is attributed to NCPB’s bad storage regime as the grains have a shelf life of 24 months.
At the same time, the Agriculture Committee chaired by Mandera South MP Aden Haji sought to know why the government chose to import the maize from Mexico at a very high moisture content. However, an explanation by the CS that the government hoped to sell it immediately was not bought by committee members.
The CS also took issue with the management of the NCPB, saying it is incompetent.

RESPONSIBILITY
“The NCPB managers cannot be insulated because if you do so, you will be running away from the reality and responsibility. They are guilty as charged,” Mr Kiunjuri said in reference to the board’s failure to ensure the maize is safe and that only genuine farmers got paid for their produce.
Towards the end of last year and at the beginning of this year, traders and brokers took advantage of the attractive Sh3,200 premium offered by the government for a 90kg bag to supply huge quantities of maize.