The maize shortage is not only affecting Kenya – CS Willy Bett

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary, Willy Bett, on Thursday, May 18 appeared before the National Assembly Agriculture Committee, to explain the events that led to hiked maize flour prices in the country and the process the government followed in importing the 29,000 metric tons of maize from Mexico.

The price of maize flour had been retailing at Ksh 150 per 2kg until May 16 when the government announced a subsidy in prices bringing the cost down to Ksh 90 per a 2 kg packet and Ksh 47 per a 1 kg packet.

The Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture has since questioned the government’s decision to import maize and in particular the speed at which the maize arrived in Kenya, with some members arguing that the commodity shortage may have been artificially created to enable cartels profit from the importation.

But according to the CS, the main reason for the crisis is and should be attributed to inadequate rains in 2016 and the prolonged drought that stretched into 2017, which not only affected Kenya but also the whole of East Africa.

Mr Bet says that in the previous years, shortage of maize in Kenya would be easily addressed by the free flow of the commodity from Uganda and Tanzania owing to the common market policy in the region but this year the crisis escalated because the countries’ food baskets were also affected by drought.

“We have never felt the shortage because of the free flow of maize in the region but drought also affected the rest of the countries. Uganda for instance could not export to Kenya because NGOs were buying maize to go and feed the people of South Sudan who are in a war crisis,” explained the CS.

Local farmers have been blamed for the situation with the Ministry telling the Parliamentary Committee that a good number of them were hoarding maize waiting for prices to shoot so that they can sell at maximum profits.

“Local farmers hoard their maize and this is part of the reason as to why we have maize shortage, even I have to admit that I have hoarded my 15 bags of maize,” said the Agriculture PS, Richard Leresian.

In a bid to explain where the few maize the government had managed to purchase from local farmers in 2016 despite the ‘hoarding’ accusations, Mr. Bett said that the government distributed a total of 750,000 bags of maize to hunger stricken families out of the one million bags they had in the national cereals.