Agriculture CS Mwangi Kiunjuri grilled by Senate special team probing maize crisis

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri, who appeared before a Senate committee on October 25, 2018. [Photo, Standard]

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri is before a Senate special committee probing the maize crisis.

During his Mashujaa Day speech at Bukhungu Stadium, President Uhuru Kenyatta assured sugarcane farmers the government will release Sh2.6 billion owed them in less than a month.

Uhuru instructed a task force be established and chaired by Kiunjuri and Governor Wycliffe Oparanya.

It is expected to report within the month with recommendations for restructuring the industry.

“When we hear the cries of sugarcane farmers, we ask ourselves where all the money the government has invested in the sector goes. The sugar factories do not have new equipment. Where does this money go? Definitely it ends in people’s pockets,” the President said.

The Agriculture ministry has been accused of using traders to import maize and get paid at farmers’ expense.

The Senate ad hoc committee is investigating incidents in which the traders were paid.

The government owes farmers Sh3 billion.

In September, millers in Western Kenya said sugar destined for transit is diverted into the local market. They said such practices will hurt sugar prices and cause them to incur losses.

Sony Sugar managing director Bernard Otieno then said price drops registered by both private and public millers in Nyando and South Nyanza sugar belts was “definitely in response to a rise in supply.”