Agriculture Cabinet Secretary (CS) Mithika Linturi on Wednesday, March 22, asked Kenyans to eat rice, potatoes and other foods as an alternative to ugali.
Speaking before a parliamentary committee, the CS explained that the government was facing difficulties in purchasing maize for the country because of a worldwide shortage.
Further, Linturi lamented that other countries did not want to share the limited amount of maize they had and there was nowhere else to get the grain.
“Some of the countries we have approached do not want to share their maize with us because they are afraid of their food security.
“Therefore I urge Kenyans to embrace rice, potatoes, and other food substitutes. We are trying to look for maize out there but the truth of the matter is that it is not there,” explained Linturi.
The CS reiterated that the government had already purchased millions of tonnes of rice and was additionally purchasing more as an alternative to the shortage of maize in the country.
“We have already brought tonnes of rice and we are bringing more next week,” stated Linturi
Speaking on Citizen TV on Thursday, March 16, Linturi announced that the government would provide cheap maize and rice by Wednesday, April 5.
He added that the government had ordered a consignment of over 1 million tonnes of maize in addition to 1.1 million tonnes of rice, which he indicated was scheduled to land in the country in two weeks.
"I plan to publish another Gazette notice to top up the maize import by 500,000 tonnes from the initial 900,000 tonnes so that in one month's time, we would flood this country with maize and rice.
"I am bringing 1.1 million tonnes of rice into the country. April 5 latest, the kind of food that would have come into the country would be cheaper," Linturi revealed.
Other plans made by the government to lower the cost of basic commodities in the country include planting maize in Zambia, as a long-term strategy to meet a six-month deadline to lower food prices.
Linturi earlier concurred with Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, who indicated that Kenyans would have to wait another six months for the price of maize flour to go down when the country starts importing maize from Zambia.
Currently, depending on the type 1kg of rice retails between Ksh130 to Ksh250.
2kg of maize flour costs between Ksh190 to Ksh220, while a bag of maize costs Ksh5,000.
