Kenyan millers who supplied affordable unga under the subsidy programme in retired President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government on Thursday, March 9, lamented delayed payment.
The United Grain Millers association, through their chair, Ken Nyaga, warned that Kenyans could be forced to pay more for unga as the millers were contemplating increasing prices in their recovery plan.
Small-scale millers, Nyaga lamented, were staring at possible closure owing to financial constraints occasioned by the delay.
“Some have shut down, while some have slowed down on operations because they cannot afford to buy maize," the Chairperson lamented.
"We are looking at a very hard time when we do not have money because this money is owned by the government expecting us to buy and bring the cost of flour down," he added.
Nyaga noted that most millers were operating through loans and were now exposed to the risk of being auctioned by banks and other lenders.
In addition, the millers noted that the high prices of maize further complicated the situation in the Kenyan market as the country continued to grapple with acute prices.
The millers cautioned that efforts to reduce the unga prices would have to wait longer if the government did not de-escalate the situation.
In early March 2023, the National Assembly declined to approve payment of over Ksh2.9 billion arrears owed to the millers who took part in the subsidy programme, citing non-disclosure of the exact quantity of maize flour supplied.
However, a section of millers criticised the move and maintained that the supply records were audited by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to ascertain the quantity of unga supplied in the three months.
The Members of Parliament, through the National Assembly Budget Appropriation Committee also questioned the non-disclosure of the retail stores used to supply the subsidised unga to Kenyan consumers for the duration.
Consequently, the MPs asked the Auditor General to audit the records of the subsidy programme to shed more light on obscure records.
