The Senate Committee on Agriculture has directed the Auditor General Edward Ouko to conduct a forensic audit of the troubled multi-billion shillings Galana Kulalu food security project after it emerged that only 600 acres of the model 5,000 acre farm are under maize cultivation. The contract sum for the targeted 10,000 acres was Ksh.7.2 billion.
So far, ksh.6.1 billion has been paid with almost half the works not completed. The Principal Secretary for Irrigation Prof. Fred Segor shocked senators when he said Ksh.580 million was used to clear the bushes.
It was projected that for on one acre, Galana farm would produce 40 bags of maize, higher than the national average of 17 bags that farmers in the country’s grain basket of Rift Valley harvest from the same size of land.
According to an Israeli firm, Green Arava, which had been contracted to develop the 10,000-acre model farm, the target was 80 bags of maize from an acre.
The revelation by the Principal Secretary for Irrigation Prof. Fred Segor has yet again brought to the fore how millions of shillings might have been swindled in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s flagship project to ensure the country’s food security is intact.
Ksh7billion that was invested in the Galana Kulalu food project was stolen and the company that was handling the project in conjunction with the government pulled out. I have never seen people behave potentially like baboons. This looting is bordering on undeveloped brains.
— Lord Abraham Mutai (@ItsMutai) May 21, 2019
In 2018, the government produced a puny 22,000 bags of maize that was worth Sh35.2 million at then from the Galana-Kulalu irrigation scheme despite spending Sh7.3 billion in the Israeli-backed food security project.
On August 2014, the National Irrigation Board (NIB) signed a Sh14.5 billion contract with Israeli firm Green Arava Ltd to pilot a project in the Galana-Kulalu scheme.
As of March 2018 year, only 5,000 acres, out of the targeted one million acres, had been put under crop.
The contractor who was present during the hearings faulted the government through the National Irrigation Board (NIB) for failing to honour it’s end of the bargain citing delayed payment of funds as the main reason for the project stalling.
“Since 2016 we have not been paid any single cent from the government and going forward with the necessary works at the site has proved to be difficult,” he said.
Besides the payments for the works done, the contractor through it’s legal officer Ken Mwangi also said the payments for shipping machinery in the country for the project were yet to be paid.
But is Sh 8m worth to stall such a multi-billion project?