Police in Bungoma in collaboration with officials from the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (KEPHIS) have seized over 80 tonnes of expired fertilizer and maize and bean seeds on sale in Bungoma.
According to a report by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the team was acting on a tip from concerned residents.
They kicked off the operation in Bungoma where one man was arrested in Kanduyi with 124 bales of expired maize and bean seeds previously condemned from the market.
In Kakamega County, three were arrested with almost 100 tonnes of expired fertilizer and seeds.
They led the investigators to three residential homes where they recovered over 70 tonnes of expired maize, 10 tonnes of beans and 2.5 tonnes of condemned fertilizer.
All the persons of interest arrested during the crackdown are currently being held at the Bungoma Police Station.
The confiscated goods are also being processed to determine how they infiltrated the market as investigations heat up.
In a similar case a month ago, the Meru County government came under fire for reportedly supplying farmers with expired fertilizer.
The farmers held protests against the programme that had been put in place to assist farmers affected by locust invasion three years ago.
“The county government supplied us with this fertilizer two weeks ago but we realised that it had been manufactured in 2013 and had expired in 2018,” one of the farmers lamented.
They marched to the county offices where they returned the expired fertilizer which they believed had been repackaged to throw off any suspicion.
“What is really disappointing is that the county supplied us with the fertilizer packaged in new bags knowing that it was all fake. It is very upsetting,” another farmer added.
