• Smallscale millers are only getting less than 15 per cent of the total 1.96 million bags of maize being allocated to millers.
• Heavy rains being experienced in parts of the Western region have delayed maize harvest.
Image: MATHEWS NDANYI
A maize miller has complained of illegal allocation of the 2 million bags to be released by the Strategic Food Reserve board.
The miller who did not want to be named said some of the maize has been allocated to traders and some MCAs disguised as independent millers.
“Apart from millers from the Cereal Millers Association (largescale millers) and the United Grain Millers Association (smallscale millers), the culprits hide under independent millers, he said.
The Strategic Food Reserve chairman Noah Wekesa said the board is selling the last consignment of maize stock at the National Cereals and Produce Board.
Wekesa said they are yet to release the maize to millers.
“We have made the allocations and we are waiting to open an account possibly by today (Friday) where the last sales will be paid,” Wekesa told the Star on the phone.
Wekesa said the board allocated 1,960,000 bags two weeks ago but some millers have not finished making the payments.
SFR has increased the price of a 90 kg bag from Sh2,300 for the first consignment released in May to Sh2,700.
The miller said that the number of independent millers has increased to 70 from five since the Ministry of Agriculture handed over to SFR.
“These are not genuine millers but people who want to take advantage of buying maize at Sh2,700 and then selling it back to genuine millers at a higher price,” he said.
SFR should ensure unscrupulous traders and businessmen do not benefit at the expense of genuine millers, the miller said.
The miller also said that the maize being sold is not of good quality.
“We are getting grade 2, 3 and 4a. Grade 4a maize is not only discoloured but also rotten and it best used for animal feed millers” he said.
Wekesa said heavy rains being experienced in Western Kenya had delayed harvesting of maize which should have started by now.
“There are some people whose maize is ready to harvest but the heavy rains have made it a challenge,” he said.
He confirmed that there has been an increase in inflows of maize coming into the country from Uganda and Tanzania borders.
“The two million bags we are releasing, plus what is coming in from our neighbours is enough to sustain us until we start buying the harvest from local farmers,” he said.
(edited by O. Owino)