Authorities too acknowledge the diversion of relief food

By VINCENT BARTOO

Ministry of Special Programmes Permanent Secretary Andrew Mondoh admitted the diversion of relief food by those in charge of distribution.

The ministry is in charge of the strategic reserves where relief food is sourced.

The ministry releases the relief food to provincial administrators in charge of arid and semi arid regions via the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB).

In a recent interview in Eldoret, the PS said the Government was now changing tack in a bid to address rising cases of relief food theft.

"The DCs and DOs will soon lack the sole power over distribution of the food," he said.

Mr Mondoh said the food would be the responsibility of new regional commissioners, deployed over a year ago, who will work closely with county relief food committees.

Role of commissioners

"It will be the role of the commissioners and the county committees to ensure the food reaches the genuine beneficiaries," he added.

The move by the Government however seems to duplicate the existing distribution system that involves DOs and DCs and relief food steering committees or food security and distribution committees.

The regional commissioners, local human rights activists argue, may not be able to oversee distribution to the last bag since they are in charge of expansive regions.

"Thus, they may have to rely on the same DOs and DCs to supervise the distribution, a move that will still see the plunder of the food continue," argued Ms Seline Locham, a woman rights activist in Turkana.

The PS said the ministry would also make public the amount of food allocated to the needy areas to create awareness.

He further said the regional commissioners would be instructed to provide a list of beneficiaries that would be pinned at the district headquarters.

Locals verify

"Locals in these areas can then verify to see whether what they were allocated got to them. We urge residents in these areas to be on the look out to forestall theft of the food," said Mondoh.

The PS also acknowledged the media’s role in exposing the relief food racket, saying it had helped minimise theft.

"When action was taken against some Government officials for stealing the food, we saw a decline in the thefts," he added.

Meanwhile, the NCPB through its spokesman Evans Wasike sought to absolve the board from the relief food scam.

Mr Wasike said their role in the relief food distribution is simply to store the food for the ministry and release it upon request by the provincial administration.

"We release the food upon receipt of genuine release documents by the provincial administration. Thereafter, we do not have control over the food once it leave our stores," he said.