Former Agriculture Minister under President Mwai Kibaki’s government, Kipruto Kirwa, on Sunday sensationally claimed that the maize crisis was deliberately hatched by senior government operatives.
Kirwa, who is also the Amani National Congress (ANC) Deputy leader, alleged the that the shortage and subsequent hike in prices was a grand scheme planned a year ago by the Jubilee administration.
The former Cheranga'ny legislator revealed that senior government officials meticulously planned and cleverly synchronised events which precipitated the current food crisis by mismanaging maize production.
“The purported importation of maize from Mexico was the culmination of well laid out plans to create a food crisis in the country. The plan involved brokers and senior government operatives,” disclosed Kirwa.
He told the Sunday Standard that in the plan, farmers were supplied with poor quality fertiliser in 2016, then the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) was underfunded so as not to buy maize from farmers while the rest was exported across the border.
“The government failed to buy enough stock for the Strategic Grain Reserve (SGR) to occasion the shortage and justify the importation
“Why was the subsidy not extended to farmers at the point of production? We are now glorifying the Mexican farmer as we expose ours,” posed Kirwa.
The former Agriculture Minister demanded that the Government ought to come clean on the issue and show transactions involved in the procurement of the subsidised maize.
Kirwa’s comments came days after Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Willy Bett was taken to task by the parliamentary committee on Agriculture over the saga as the MPs questioned the importation of the consignment of 30,000 metric tonnes of Mexican maize.
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