President Uhuru Kenyatta has issued a warning to the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) who paid middlemen and traders money meant for maize farmers. Speaking at the ASK Nairobi International Trade Fair, President Kenyatta chastised them for the failed pay and said he heard the complaints from maize farmers who hadn’t received their money, “But we must speak the truth, the money meant to pay the maize farmers was part of our budget last year. But the people at NCPB, instead of paying the farmers who had worked hard on the farms to produce yields and get money to take kids to school, went ahead and paid other rich dealer and traders,” he outlined.
He warned that the trend won’t continue, “I swear before God, try that again and see what will happen to you, we won’t entertain jokes again,” he affirmed. The President said the state had noted what happened before, and those culpable will be hunted down, “The money belongs to the citizen and he or she must first be paid for the work accomplished.”
Moreover, he called for a reduction of maize flour prices, highlighting the fact that there is no reason to worry about maize availability. He said that most likely farmers are set to harvest 6 million maize bags from the short rains season, while the total supply so far for 2018 will be 47 million bags. The government, on the other hand, has accounted for stocks amounting to 9 million bags of maize, bringing the total to 56 million bags, with the normal annual tally of 52 bags exceeded.”This should result to significant reduction of maize flour,” he said, “I encourage the millers to be considerate and mindful of their social responsibility.”