This archive report was first published on 30 June 2019.
On June 30, 2019, the Strategic Food Reserve Oversight Board (SFR) had given millers up to the end of the month to collect the paid-for stocks, but most of them did not pick up all the stocks.
The NCPB had opened its stores to millers who had paid for grain a fortnight ago after a standoff between the SFR and the Ministry of Agriculture over who was in charge of the stores delayed the process.
Unga Group CEO Nick Hutchinson explained, 'We are asking for more time so that we are allowed to take what we have paid for even after the lapse of the period that we had been given to conduct the exercise.'
The NCPB confirmed the stores had been closed to allow the stock-take, with communications manager Titus Maiyo stating, 'We are taking stocks and we have closed our stores for stock taking.'
The exercise might take two weeks to be completed, according to Maiyo.
As of the previous week, millers had collected 950,000 bags of maize from SFR out of three million bags as the government sold off cheap grain to ease the rising cost of flour that has now hit Sh120 for a two-kilo packet.
The State is selling a 90-kilo bag at Sh2,300 against a market price of Sh3,300 that has subjected Kenyans to the high cost of flour.
