The issue of maize of maize scandal is growing to be more than just an ordinary scandals ever experienced in the country. The number of top politicians linked to the scandal is just overwhelming. The list is even not yet full as the pen continues to write down more names.
Senators want a Cabinet secretary and his former colleague held responsible for maize scandal.
In a damming report tabled in the Senate by ad hoc committee chaired by Prof Margaret Kamar (Uasin Gishu) on the maize crisis in country, the senators said a Gazette notice by National Treasury CS Henry Rotich and former Agriculture CS Willy Bett opened a floodgate for unscrupulous dealers to deliver maize to National Strategic Reserve.
The committee established that maize imported by different dealers was sold to the Ministry of Agriculture through National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) at a profit.
Senators regretted that genuine farmers are yet to be paid their dues since the money allocated to pay them was diverted to pay traders, brokers and ghost farmers.
They noted that the Strategic Food Reserve Oversight Board term had expired during the maize crisis, and could not authorize payments to farmers during the period.
“Rotich and Bett must take responsibility for the Gazette notice. The minister should develop regulations and guidelines on importation of maize and other food crops and table them before the Senate within 45 days,” said the committee.
According to the committee’s findings, there was no evidence that there were standards and quality checks by Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) at the ports of entry during the duty-free maize importation period.
In light of all this, on September 13, 2018, the committee directed Kebs to carry out sampling and testing on maize stored in the NCPB silos.
The senators noted that the fraudulent activities at NCPB gave brokers an edge over genuine farmers who are yet to be paid to date. They now want the Government to recover ill-gotten wealth through fictitious deliveries to the NCPB.
Do you think the government should auction their properties to recover their loss at the NCPB?