The anxiety that accompanied appointments to positions of Cabinet Secretary had a lot to do with many variables including the desire to deploy the best possible brains to the mountain of challenges ahead, regional and ethnic expectations and the desire for upward mobility for the individuals that were tapped.
The weight of expectation was compounded by a raft of pledges by the Jubilee government, desire for President Uhuru Kenyatta to leave a lasting legacy and go one over previous administrations, the looming 2015 deadline of achieving the Millennium Development Goals, and the very expensive choice of government structure Kenyans chose in 2010. Historical inadequacies and structural deficiencies that conspired to derail the dream of Kenya’s Founding Fathers loomed large, now that the country was also in its 50th year of existence as a self-governing entity.
The call for a return to basics meant the Independence pledge to tackle poverty, ensure a healthy populace, eliminate illiteracy and feed the nation proved timely and as real a starting point as any. That is why the most crucial was the Agriculture docket handed to Cabinet Secretary Felix Koskei.
Truth be told, this is a humongous ministry with scores of parastatals under its wing. It is critical to the development matrix because, like Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte once remarked: “An army marches on its stomach”.
His army lost more soldiers because of spoiled food than from battle. And if the Uhuru administration’s Kenyans are to reach the desired, next level of development, the food security situation must be assured. Mr Koskei’s docket has National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) under its wing and currently, its silos can hold 1.8 million metric tonnes, equivalent to 21 million bags of dry maize.
However, this national granary is in peril as a private company called Erad Supplies and General Contractors Ltd seeks to sell over 26 grain storage facilities in Nairobi, Nakuru, Kisumu, Eldoret, Moi’s Bridge and other parts of the country over an unsettled Sh500 million court award over breach of contract.
Eyebrows should rise over the initial court award of Sh297,386,505 from the auction of moveable assets leaving a balance of Sh255,290,877 which accrued interest at 12 per cent from December 2012. Their outstanding claim is Sh264,864,285. Court papers show that Erad did not supply a single grain of maize to NCPB, but has sustained legal action that is making this transaction swim with the sharks of Goldenberg, Anglo leasing, Kenya duty-Free and Kenren.
Remember Goldenberg architects were paid handsomely for making non-gold producing Kenya a net exporter of the precious metal and recived foreign exchange compensation. Anglo leasing left Kenya with several castles hanging in the air, while the Kenren fertiliser deal saw subsequent generations of taxpayers penalised for a questionable deal.
Even as Mr Koskei mulls over irrigating a million acres of land in Galana, he must protect the soft underbelly that is NCPB. Get the AG’s office to get in on the action, otherwise there will be no strategic grain reserve to talk about at the end of this harvest. Think like Napoleon.
