- The CS will appear before members of the committee on April 8, 2024.
- The Government has since warned those behind the supply of substandard fertiliser that their days numbered.
Image: COURTESY
National Assembly’s Departmental Committee on Agriculture and Livestock has summoned Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi.
Linturi was summoned to shed light on sale and distribution of counterfeit fertiliser to farmers.
The CS will appear before members of the committee on April 8, 2024.
Top officials from the State Department for Agriculture, Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS) and the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) have also been scheduled to appear before the committee on the same day.
The group had been scheduled to appear before the committee on March 20, but members were made to understand there were prior official engagements.
All the parties were unavailable for the meeting except the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS).
“The committee is also set to meet the manufacturers of the fertiliser on Tuesday, April 9, 2024,” the vice chair of the committee Brighton Yegon said at a press conference.
Yegon added that the are further scheduled to conduct visits to various NCPB depots across the country where they will also engage with farmers on the availability, fairness in the distribution, and the price and quality of the fertiliser sold to them.
“After the scheduled meetings and field visits, the committee will prepare a report on its findings for consideration by the House,” he said.
Yegon said his committee does not take the matter lightly, especially given its potential impact on the government’s plans towards making the country food secure.
“The agriculture sector plays a key role in the economic growth of our country and we therefore cannot allow fraudulent practices to mess with it. We wish to assure the country that we shall do everything within our mandate to ensure that corrective measures are put in place and that punishment is meted out to anyone found culpable of any malpractice,” he stated.
The Government has since warned those behind the supply of substandard fertiliser that their days numbered.
Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi on Sunday said the government will not relent in its quest to comprehensively investigate the matter and culprits will be brought to book and face full force of the law.
He said those who want to disrupt the steady progress of the country’s food production sector will be treated as enemies of Kenyans.
Mudavadi said the fertiliser issue is of great concern as it impacts directly on the lives of Kenyan citizens.
Image: COURTESY