Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua on Wednesday, March 15, warned farmers that they had three weeks to sell their maize produce.
Speaking in Tana River County, the DP warned that farmers would suffer should they ignore his advice.
This was because the country was planning to import duty-free maize which would flood the local market.
“In the next 2 to 3 weeks, farmers should sell all the maize they are hoarding in their stores.
“If they wait longer the process will drop down as we will be receiving imported maize,” he warned farmers of incurring losses.
Gachagua’s remarks were contradictory to what he told the public on Sunday, March 12, during a joint interview with the media.
“There is no cheap maize anywhere in the world. We can only buy from South Africa but we are in competition with a host of other African countries. The maize in Brazil is too expensive to import because of the distance.
He further remarked that the government would no longer be importing maize and going forward that would be done by millers.
"The Government does not want to import maize directly because we don't want corruption and scandals. We don't want people in Government to get into business,” he remarked.
On Tuesday, March 12, Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi revealed that traders would be importing 2 million metric tonnes of various duty-free food.
Speaking to the press, Linturi announced that the traders would import rice, white and yellow maize in two weeks’ time.
“We expect accredited traders will bring in duty-free 1.4 million metric tonnes of imported white maize, 1.1 million metric tonnes of rice and 500,000 metric tonnes of yellow maize.
“The imported foods will help in boosting local stocks,” Linturi assured the public of food security.
