Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri has vowed to remain in office despite calls for his resignation over the maize scandal.
Speaking on Saturday at Mumbi Girls High School in Murang'a, the CS stated that he will not be intimidated and will do his best to fight corruption in his docket.
He further defended his reputation, claiming he was the first person to blow the whistle on questionable dealings at the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) but he is now being victimised.
"These leaders who think they can threaten and intimidate the ministers should be told they have targeted the wrong person.
[caption caption="Mwangi Kiunjuri"]
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"We know they are defending the cartels in the Ministry and are against my efforts to clean the NCPB.
"Remember I was the first person to talk about the rot in the Ministry while they remained silent," he remarked.
This comes after a section of Rift Valley leaders told him to step aside, and called for thorough investigations into the unscrupulous distribution of fertiliser and payment of maize supplies by farmers to the National Cereals and Produce Board.
The scandal which has robbed Kenya taxpayers’ Ksh1.9 billion has been linked with top senior corrupt government officials who engaged in dubious tendering processes to benefit themselves.
Agriculture Principal Secretary Richard Lesiyampe on Thursday, however, dismissed reports that politicians and other senior government officials are involved in the scandal saying preliminary investigations revealed that the 18 traders are solely to blame for the woes of the farmers.
Documents presented to the committee by Lesiyampe exposed a well-choreographed skim where the said persons who supplied maize in Eldoret, Moi’s Bridge, Kitale, Kisumu, Bungoma and Nakuru depots consequently were paid huge amounts of money at the expense of genuine farmers whose payments were delayed.
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