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NSIS called in to probe S. Sudan maize exports

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Cost of living fact finding mission: Parliamentary Committee on Cost of Living, chairman, Ababu Namwaba (left), accompanied by Prof Gideon Misoi, National Cereals and Produce Board’s Managing Director, samples maize at the Eldoret depot on May 27, 2011. NSIS has been invited to investigate how maize stocks were exported after a bumper harvest last year. File

The National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS) has been invited to investigate how maize stocks were exported after a bumper harvest last year, exposing consumers to a biting shortage of the commodity and high prices of maize flour.

Alleging economic sabotage, Agriculture minister Sally Kosgei said traders mopped up maize from last year’s bumper harvest and sold it to Southern Sudan and Uganda, creating an artificial shortage.

This is the first time that the government is admitting foul play in the shortage that has seen prices of maize flour rise to Sh140 for a 2-kg packet.

Some millers have also stopped or scaled down operations while retailers have started restricting how many packets one can buy at a time.

Since millers started raising the alarm over the looming crisis three months ago, the government has been insisting that there was enough maize in the country, apparently held by farmers in anticipation of higher prices.

“It is wrong to sell out everything leaving our reserves with nothing,” said Dr Kosgei during the National Economic and Social Council meeting that was held in Naivasha over the weekend.

Dr Kosgei said security agents should look no further than the applications for tenders to import the maize duty free, saying the same traders were involved.

“The bad weather conditions that we are experiencing now were not there last year. We had sufficient maize to feed the nation to the next harvest,” she said. Those involved, she said, should face economic and criminal sanctions. However, she said a
consignment of maize from Malawi and Zambia was expected this week.

Trade minister Amos Kimunya said incentives should be given to the youth to grow maize and produce enough for the domestic and regional markets.

“We have thousands of jobless youths. We should engage them in producing maize, get our 40 million bags for reserve and export the surplus,” he said.

Prime minister Raila Odinga said the rising cost of fuel and food, the weakening shilling and climate change would have grave implications on the economy.

“Climate change and fuel cost are the two factors on which the performance of our economy will largely continue to depend on,” he said.

He said Kenya also needed to produce more technology-savvy workers to close a gap between the expectations of employers and job seekers.

Ironies

“One of the ironies we face is that while thousands of educated youth are out looking for work, many companies are also out there looking for workers with the relevant skills.”

Mr Odinga said urbanisation was catching up with Kenya and blamed poor planning for the mushrooming informal settlements in cities and major towns.

He noted that 60 per cent of the people in Nairobi were living in slums.