How 4 million maize bags were imported illegally

By AGATHA NGOTHO

Senate committee has revealed that 4 million bags of maize were illegally imported.

Senator Okongo Omogeni on Wednesday said this is according to the documents tabled before the Senate Select committee co-chaired by Prof Margaret Kamar and Moses Wetangula.

Agriculture CS Mwangi Kiunjuri while being grilled by the committee was tasked to explain who authorized the importation of four million bags of maize in 2017.

But Kiunjuri in his defence said the Inter-Ministerial committee authorized the importation of six million bags of maize.

He said as per minutes for 21st June 2017, the country had imported some six million bags of maize and by December the amount had increased to 10 million bags.

The CS could not explain who authorized the importation of the remaining four million bags.

Kiunjuri in conflicting statements said this was occasioned by low delivery of maize to the National Cereals and Produce Board.

He said the country at any given time needs 1.4 million bags of maize but when the then minister for Agriculture gave a one-month extension for importation, the NCPB received some 190,019 bags of maize from local farmers.

This he said saw a deficit of some 1.2 million bags from the 1.4 million bags required.

The CS could not explain how some 600,000 bags were imported in November and how the government had a surplus of some 400,000 bags in December.

Source: The Star