Press Statement on Cessation of Maize Importation-Kiprotich Cherargei
We, the Members of Parliament from the maize producing regions, demand for an immediate cessation of importation of 10 M bags of Duty free maize into the country given that no official gazette notice has formally and legally been issued.
We are aware that there are plans by the ministry of trade to import 10 M bags of duty free maize into the country while this is the season of maize harvesting in major parts of the country. It has never happened before that maize is imported into the country during harvest season yet we understand that local maize production is always our first remedy.
As members of parliament from maize producing regions, we seek to know the reason as to why ships are already docking in Mombasa Port without the laid down legal procedures in place. An adjournment motion has been sponsored by Hon. Kirwa, Hon. Pkosing and Hon. Kaikai Bisau in National Assembly and a statement by Nandi Senator Hon. Samson Cherargei in the Senate.
We are aware there was no cabinet approval on the importation of Duty free maize into the country.
This will undermine the intention of guaranteed minimum return to farmers which was championed by CS Moses Kuria.
The projection of the bumper harvest of maize this season is projected to be 42M bags despite the high cost of farm inputs, for example, we were buying one bag of fertilizer at Kshs 7000, high cost of fuel, ploughing, in fact we request that the cost of fertilizer of Kshs 7,000 should match the price of Kshs 7,000 per bag of maize.
It seems there is a deliberate move to continue killing the maize farming in the country as was seen in the previous regime where even the sugar sector and other farming sectors were killed.
It seems that cartels are now back into business and this time round, they appear more aggressive and ruthless.
On the GMO Issue, we don’t need to rush until we have proper laws, policies, rules and regulations to govern the use and importation of GMOS Into the country, including but not limited to Agricultural products.
As Parliament, we are ready to provide necessary support on the issue of GMO debate in the country with necessary consultations with necessary stakeholders, including members of the public.
In conclusion, the committees of Agriculture, Trade , Industry and Cooperatives should immediately summon the CS of Trade, Hon. Kuria and CS Agriculture, Hon. Linturi on the matter.
Furthermore, the ministry should cease the issuance of gazette notice to allow importation of 10M Duty free bags or any other amount of maize into the country.
We also demand the government to open the NCPB and strategic grain reserves and mop up the entire maize harvest of this year before allowing importation.
We call upon the government to freeze the importation of maize into the country until April 2023, when we have a clear deficit of how many bags to import into the country.
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