Maize farmers are set to be paid by the government beginning next week, after completion of the lengthy verification process. Devolution CS Eugene Wamalwa said 1,140 farmers returned the verification forms, and out of those 900 have been confirmed and will be paid. Speaking to the press in Nairobi, CS Wamalwa said 226 are under investigation for posing as farmers falsely in order to get payments they didn’t deserve, “If they are found to have lodged some fraudulent claims or colluded with officials at the depos, then investigations will be completed and they’ll be prosecuted,” he said.
The CS said it was regrettable that verification took that long, but it was necessary adding that it revealed irregularities and potential hitches. “We are very confident that the multi-agency team we assembled has been able to deal with the problems,” he said. He said the farmers who’ll be paid completed the verification process and revealed that some picked the forms but didn’t complete the whole process, seeing how tedious it might have been. The move comes days after North Rift farmers voiced their frustrations to Senators in Uasin Gishu, who were on the Senate mashinani program. They complained among other things about cartels and the pressure to diversify plant other crops, highlighting the challenge maize farmers face in the country at the moment.
