Agriculture Principal Secretary Richard Lesiyampe has urged farmers who have stocks of maize within or outside the country to sell to the government and they’ll buy at a fair price, “We want to make sure each family has something to eat and therefore the government is buying maize at sh 3600 per bag but not 5,000 as it is said,” added Mr Richard.
He said a small number of millers have accessed maize from the first vessel, the majority will continue to purchase from the market and nothing much would change. The committee refused to give two officials a chance to explain the subsidy until they provide documents on the rationale by which millers got it and who imported the maize and how much each miller has received a subsidy.
The Agriculture Cabinet Secretary and Principal Secretary had appeared before the Agriculture Committee in parliament on Thursday. The committee refused to give two officials a chance to explain the subsidy until they provide documents on the rationale by which millers got it and who imported the maize and how much each miller has received a subsidy.
Other members of the committee also noted that notice in The Kenya Gazette through which the National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich allowed the duty-free importation of maize was open-ended as it did not state that it would stop at five million bags as claimed Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Willy Bett.
