This report says a fresh scramble over maize prices was threatening to cost taxpayers billions, even as about 1.5 million bags in National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) stores had already turned discoloured.
The dispute centred on a push by politically connected traders and some legislators to have the Government buy maize at between Sh3,200 and Sh3,600 per 90-kilogram bag. That demand came after the State had already spent heavily to support farmers and stabilise the market during the 2017 election season.
According to the report, the risk was that the State would end up paying far more for maize that had been stored poorly and was now being declared unfit, or at least unsuitable, for human consumption. If the discoloured stock was sold at Sh1,600 a bag, the Government stood to lose about Sh3 billion.
NCPB acting Managing Director Albin Sang said the problem began with ageing silos and prolonged neglect. He told Financial Standard that the storage facilities had gone too long without maintenance, allowing moisture to damage the grain.
“Ideally it should take up to two years if silos are working well,” Sang said, adding that the current silos at NCPB were 20 to 30 years old. He also said the Strategic Food Reserve Fund Board (SFRFB) had not helped NCPB clear the maize or pay farmers.
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. Sang, however, maintained that not all discoloured maize was necessarily unfit.
The SFRFB was seeking to buy about 2.4 million bags of maize at Sh2,300 a bag, but first had to clear the more than 1.5 million bags already in storage. The report warned that if the same traders bought the cheap stock and later sold maize back to the State at a premium, they could profit from a cycle that left farmers out of the gains.
That concern was tied to the political pressure around the price. Kwanza MP Ferdinand Wanyonyi was reported to have said in a committee sitting that he had 250,000 bags of maize. The report said Nyakundi Report could not independently confirm that claim. If true, and if Parliament approved a price of Sh3,200 per bag, he would have stood to make Sh800 million from a sale to Government.
National Assembly Agriculture Committee chairman Adan Haji, the Mandera South MP, pressed the SFRFB for evidence behind the Sh2,300 figure. He asked for a scientific report and the benchmarked areas used to reach that price. Wanyonyi, on the other hand, insisted the expected price should be no less than Sh3,200.
Some North Rift MPs were also telling farmers they wanted Sh3,600 per bag. The report argued that such a price would mostly benefit large-scale producers, since about 70 per cent of maize in Kenya is grown by small-scale farmers who may not have the volume or access to deliver to NCPB.
Even for those who could deliver, payment delays remained a major complaint. Timothy Njagi, a research fellow at the Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development, said many farmers were still waiting to be paid for maize delivered in 2017. He argued that only well-connected suppliers were being paid within two days.
Njagi also questioned why the same politicians pushing for a higher price were not equally vocal about settling outstanding farmer payments. In his view, they were not acting in the interest of farmers.
The report further said MPs had slowed efforts to restructure the maize sector, including by holding up the Warehouse Receipt System Bill 2018. The bill would allow farmers to store maize in private warehouses and sell later when prices improved, reducing dependence on NCPB.
A former NCPB official said lawmakers did not want the bill passed because it would weaken their influence over maize pricing. A senior Agriculture Ministry official, speaking anonymously, said the market had been politicised.
Last year’s subsidy programme was also blamed for the current mess. The Government announced a maize price of Sh3,200 on 31 October 2017, but the subsidy continued until 31 December 2017. During that period, millers bought subsidised maize while NCPB was left holding the rest.
Between April and December 2017, the State was the only supplier of maize in the country under the subsidy that kept a two-kilo packet of flour at Sh90. Official figures cited in the report said 15 million bags of maize worth Sh39.6 billion were imported, filling nearly all space in the 39 NCPB depots nationwide. By December 2017, maize worth Sh42 billion had entered the country.
The report traced the political roots of maize scandals back to 1966, when allegations of “unfairness, inefficiency, corruption and black marketing in the distribution and marketing of maize throughout Kenya” emerged. It said the controversy then touched on former minister Paul Ngei. Forty-four years later, the names of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and then Agriculture Minister William Ruto, now Deputy President, were said to have appeared in another maize scandal.
Despite the tensions, SFRFB chairman Dr Noah Wekesa said the board still believed Sh2,300 was a realistic price if farmers were paid on time. He said the State should use banks rather than NCPB as paymasters so farmers could receive payment within a week of delivery.
Wekesa also said farmers would need to be registered, with details such as names, acreage, title deeds and planting dates recorded. He added that the State’s money should not pass through NCPB officers who, he said, colluded with traders.
Deputy President William Ruto said a task force was already in place to restructure NCPB and eventually privatise it so that it could operate more efficiently.
As the pressure mounted, Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri was said to have softened his earlier position that farmers should accept Sh2,300 or walk away. The report said he was under political pressure after the subsidy programme and the Sh3,600 price decision had gone badly wrong.
It also noted that several senior NCPB officials had been charged in court and removed from office, but the wider cartel network was regrouping. The report said the real battle was political, not economic, because powerful figures in the maize trade had long shaped the sector.
Nyakundi Report’s archive record of the article shows a market still haunted by storage failures, delayed payments, and a recurring fight over who benefits when the State buys maize.
