Who wants to sue Sh2b to count number of farmers?

It is a bit puzzling why the State intends to spend Sh2 billion on a farmers’ census.

Even more worrying is that the programme is to take one and-a-half years. A census is an official count or survey of a population, typically recording various details of individuals, including what they do for a living, their income and so forth.

Much, if not most of this data can be found in the 2009 Kenya Population and Housing Census and the State-owned Kenya Institute of Public Policy Research and Analysis.

The Government says it needs to establish how many farmers it will be dealing with but this can easily be collated by analyzing data form the national census. How much of it would have changed in the last two years anyway?

The choice of city for training staff to carry out the census is even more puzzling. Rome is better known for its famous ancient architecture, historical art and monuments than agriculture.

But perhaps Agriculture PS Romano Kiome knows something others don’t?

It is just odd that the Government would want to spend money repeating what it had already done and for what?

With just a few months to the General Election, various ministries are on a spending spree, but closer scrutiny raises a red flag over what the money is buying. In many cases, ministries have been accused of creating projects that end up wasting taxpayers’ money, with nothing tangible to show for them.

EGYPT AND ISRAEL

A training visit to South Africa, Egypt or Israel would make far more sense than Italy for the simple reason that these are countries that have mastered the art of feeding themselves and making money from farming.

Egypt and Israel are deserts but one is yet to hear of a massive food aid of the likes initiated by the Kenyans for Kenya campaign.

Egypt, for instance, has used the River Nile to maximum advantage, while Israel has led the way in irrigated farming.

Something just doesn’t smell right and as the saying goes: “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, looks like a duck then it is probably a duck.”

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