CS Mwangi Kinjuri Halts NCPB Depot Leases

Agriculture CS Mwangi Kiunjuri halted leases between business people and all depots belonging to the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB).

According to Kiunjuri, the depots required to be freed as soon as possible so as to allow room for the purchase of more farm produce from farmers.

His orders issued during his tour of the Nyanza depots also terminated all leases of the NCPB depots across the country.

"We cannot continue with this trend. Why should we be forced to use taxpayers’ money to pay transporters to transfer our maize from some of our silos to others and save space for private businesspeople?" wondered CS Kiunjuri.

The CS had been asked by the Senate to tour the NCPB depots in the country to assess the state of produce at the facilities and other challenges facing the granaries.

He held that having terminated lease deals with the board meant the state would cut down on the costs of transporting the cereals using private transporters.

“No single bag of maize will be moved from one silo to another. After we cancel the leases, we will use that space to store the new produce that we will purchase from farmers,” held CS Kiunjuri.

NCPB has 110 stores countrywide with a capacity to hold 21.52 million bags. The board also has silos in the grain basket region and Nairobi with a storage capacity of 3.1 million bags excluding Cypress Bins of about 1.5 million 90kg bags.

The ministry will only allow Kenya Seed Company to continue to occupy the stores it has leased from the NCPB in Kitale.