The Ministry of Agriculture in Bungoma County has sent Mrs. Margret Gogo the principal of Mabanga Farmers’ training centre on a compulsory leave pending investigations on mismanagement of funds among other issues.
Bungoma County Agriculture, Livestock and Cooperatives CEC Mathews Makanda said they took the decision after a meeting with the stakeholders saying they will immediately start investigations on the matter to exposes the genesis of the rot in the institution.
He explained his dismay saying the Ministry has been catering for all the expenditures in the institution yet nothing tangible is coming out saying for instance between 2015 to present Kshs 16 million has been channelled to the institution but it has been misused.
He said the institution has 98 acres of land and should be the leading producer of products such as chicken products, maize, and beans, adding that the institution has been transformed to a hotel instead of a research institution.
Makanda also pointed out that supplies in the institution are made by someone working in the same institution saying there is a conflict of interest that needs to be checked.
“I warn all the officers working in the Ministry that anyone who will be found meddling in corruption will face the full force of the law. The Ministry of Agriculture in Bungoma has zero tolerance to corruption,” he said.
The CEC also divulged that the subsidized fertilizer and the free fertilizer to the vulnerable will be officially made available on Wednesday at Mabanga FTC saying more than 33,000 farmers are set to benefit from the input.
However, he said they have suspended the tractor service that had been deployed to help farmers till their lands at a fee saying the county assembly did not pass the supplementary budget to fund the same and the tractor was consuming a lot of fuel that they could not sustain their own.
Agriculture Chief officer Aruput cautioned the farmers against selling the farm inputs but instead use the well to boost their yields and achieve food security.