On 20 November 2018, a fresh battle over maize prices exposed how politically connected traders and legislators were positioning themselves to profit from the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) system. At the centre of the dispute was about 1.5 million bags of discoloured maize already in NCPB stores, with the Government facing a possible loss of about Sh3 billion if the stock is sold at Sh1,600 a bag.
The push was for the State to pay as much as Sh3,200 to Sh3,600 for a 90-kilogram bag, a move critics said would reward the same network that had benefited from last year’s maize import and subsidy programme. The source said the maize had been bought at Sh3,600 last year, and that selling it cheaply now would deepen losses on taxpayers.
NCPB acting Managing Director Albin Sang told Financial Standard that the silos had gone too long without maintenance, allowing moisture to damage the grain. He said maize should ideally remain in storage for up to two years when the facilities are working properly, but noted that the current silos are 20 to 30 years old.
Sang also said the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) had tested maize from NCPB depots in 37 counties and found that most of the 256 samples collected were unfit for human consumption. He maintained that not all discoloured maize was unsafe, and accused the Strategic Food Reserve Fund Board (SFRFB) of failing to support NCPB in clearing the stock or paying farmers.
The SFRFB wanted to buy about 2.4 million bags of maize at Sh2,300, but first had to clear the existing stock in NCPB stores. That gap opened the door to speculation that the same buyers could return to sell maize back to the Government at a higher price after purchasing discoloured grain cheaply.
According to the report, some North Rift MPs were already telling farmers that the price should rise to Sh3,600 per bag. Kwanza MP Ferdinand Wanyonyi was reported to have said in a committee sitting that he had 250,000 bags of maize. Nyakundi Report could not independently verify that claim, but if true, the source said he would stand to make Sh800 million if the price reached Sh3,200 a bag.
National Assembly Agriculture Committee chairman Adan Haji, the Mandera South MP, demanded a scientific basis for the proposed Sh2,300 price. He told SFRFB chairman Dr Noah Wekesa: “We need a scientific report backed by numbers and the areas you benchmarked that led to the conclusion of setting up the price of Sh2,300.”
Wanyonyi, in turn, told Wekesa: “Let it be known to you that the price we are expecting is nothing less than Sh3,200.” Wekesa said the figure being discussed was guided by Agriculture ministry policy, including local maize prices, local production and regional supply.
The article said the political pressure was being driven by a wider cartel structure that had long profited from State buying. It warned that if the 1.5 million bags in NCPB stores were mixed with maize bought from the market at Sh1,600 and resold to the Government at Sh3,200, the traders could pocket about Sh3.84 billion.
Timothy Njagi, a research fellow at Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development, said farmers who had not been paid for last year’s deliveries had little reason to supply NCPB again. He argued that well-connected suppliers were the ones most likely to be paid within two days, while ordinary farmers waited much longer.
The report also said Parliament had slowed reforms that could have reduced NCPB’s control over maize pricing. MPs were accused of sitting on the Warehouse Receipt System Bill 2018, which would allow farmers to store maize in private warehouses and sell when prices improved.
A former NCPB official said the Bill would weaken the board’s ability to control prices. A senior Agriculture ministry official, speaking anonymously, said the maize market had been politicised and blamed the 2017 import programme for distorting prices.
In 2017, the Government opened the borders to duty-free maize imports from countries including Mexico and South Africa as drought hit the country and President Uhuru Kenyatta’s re-election campaign came under pressure. The Government announced a maize price of Sh3,200 on 31 October 2017, but the subsidy programme continued until 31 December 2017. The source said millers bought the subsidised maize, leaving NCPB with the rest.
Between April and December 2017, the State was the only supplier of maize under the subsidy scheme, which kept a two-kilo packet of flour at Sh90. Official figures cited in the report said about 15 million bags of maize worth Sh39.6 billion were imported during that period, filling much of the 39 NCPB depots across the country. By December 2017, maize valued at Sh42 billion had entered Kenya, creating a glut.
Wekesa defended the proposed Sh2,300 price, saying it would be fair if farmers were paid on time. He said NCPB held on to farmers’ money for too long after accepting deliveries. The SFRFB said it was working on a system that would pay farmers within a week, using banks rather than NCPB as paymasters.
Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture Mwangi Kiunjuri was also drawn into the dispute. The article said he had softened his earlier position that farmers should accept Sh2,300 or walk away, after the Government’s earlier decision to pay Sh3,600 a bag during the campaign period and a poorly executed subsidy programme left the sector in turmoil.
The report said several senior NCPB officials had already been charged in court and forced out of office, but the cartel network was regrouping. It also noted that President Kenyatta had publicly rebuked Kiunjuri twice, while calls for the CS’s resignation were growing louder.
Kiunjuri declined to rule out the involvement of politicians in the ruling Jubilee Party, saying they were also farmers. He added: “70 per cent of the debate in Parliament is about farming.”
The article traced Kenya’s maize scandals back to 1966, when allegations of “unfairness, inefficiency, corruption and black marketing in the distribution and marketing of maize throughout Kenya” emerged and touched on former powerful minister Paul Ngei. It said that 44 years later, the names of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and then Agriculture Minister William Ruto, now Deputy President, would feature in another maize scam.
Deputy President William Ruto was quoted as saying there was already a task force in place to restructure NCPB with the aim of privatising it so it could work efficiently. The report also said the SFRFB was registering farmers and collecting details such as names, acreage, title deed information and planting dates as part of a new payment system.
Overall, the article portrayed a maize market shaped by political influence, delayed payments, weak storage, and repeated State losses, with the 2018 pricing fight threatening to repeat the same cycle that had already distorted the 2017 crop year.
