Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri is once again on the spot over maize scandal.
An agitated group of maize farmers are baying for his resignation citing his failure to salvage the staple crop from the grasp of cartels.
During their meeting in Eldoret Monday, the farmers said influential individuals in the government intend to capitalise on maize shortage to import maize. A shortage which has been bred by the ministries empty promise to deliver over 2 million bags of subsidized maize to millers.
The maize shortage has already already cost consumers as retail prices shot up by Sh35 from Sh80 to a whooping Sh115 for two kilograms of maize flour.’
The farmers criticised the government for not setting aside funds for the maize sub-sector in the 2019/20 financial year budget that is to be read this month.
“There is a scheme within the government to cripple agriculture by imposing heavy taxes on herbicides and denying the industry funds for research,” Kenya Farmers Association director, Kipkorir Menjo, said at the meeting that took place at the Teachers Advisory Centre.
The farmers also demanded the resignation of Mr Kiunjuri, saying he has mismanaged the ministry.
“The minister should say if there are plans to import cheap maize,” Mr Herman Kiprotich from Moiben said.
“Kenyans do not understand why the government keeps importing milk, maize and other produce when local farmers have the capacity to do so if agriculture is properly funded,” Moiben MP Silas Tiren added at the ame meeting.
Mr Tiren faulted the government for “ignoring agriculture despite food security being one of the pillars of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four agenda”.
The MP probed government setting aside Sh20 billion for water projects, which he claims should have been channelled to the fertiliser subsidy scheme.
Millers have however urged the government to end the shortage by allowing the importation of maize.
They want the government to facilitate unrestricted flow of maize into Kenya from neighbouring countries.