Uhuru not keen to end coffee sector crisis

President Uhuru Kenyatta announced that a committee would be set up to probe what ails the coffee sub-sector.

But the President never even bothered to meet coffee farmers and hear for himself what they really want done.

Coffee theft, being a law and order problem, needed the CS for Interior to announce the measures he has so far taken to stop the looting of coffee. The fact that he has thus far done nothing about it, prompting the President to form a probe committee, is itself confirmation that the CS and the rest of the security chain within the Executive have failed.

Probe committees in Kenya are usually set up to cover up for perpetrators. That is why nobody has ever been jailed after a probe since independence.

Theft of coffee cannot wait for the committee to table its findings because the plunder will be happening even as the team continues in its probe.

Many have continued to argue, in error of course, that the president’s hands are tied by the Constitution so that he cannot decisively handle insecurity in Kenya. Of course that is a bare-faced lie made in bad taste by apologists. He has all the powers he needs to tackle runaway crime in the country.

I would be wrong, however, to assume that the President was in Nyeri to only tackle matters coffee. He announced major infrastructure projects his government hopes to get done “in my time” to quote him. However, our experience is that this government faces extremely serious constraints when it comes to revenue collection, again because of corruption at KRA.

The President spoke dismissively about Central Kenya leaders saying the reason he has kept away from the region is the loud wrangling among local leaders.

This misguided notion that Uhuru does not need to work long hours to solve Central Kenya problems could eventually cost him dearly in 2017.