Farmers to pay additional fee for compensation fertilisers » Capital News
NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 11 – Farmers who bought substandard fertilizer might face losses as Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi remained non-committal on the compensation framework of farmers despite President William Ruto’s directive on the matter.
Appearing before the Senate Committee on Agriculture to shed light on the claims of fake fertilizer distribution under the government subsidy program, CS Linturi stated that farmers will be compensated with top-dressing fertilizer at an additional fee.
NCPB banned NPK 10:26:10 fertilisers manufactured by Ken Chemicals Limited and KEL Chemicals’ Kelphos Plus, Kelphos Gold and NPK 10:26:10 for not meeting KEBS standards.
“We want farmers who took the substandard fertilizer to take back the fertilizer they took then we will rework the money we haven’t paid to KEL Chemicals,” he stated.
“If we can recover that expense will all the money, we owe the company we will give them for free. If it doesn’t meet then we will work a formula to see whether they will pick the fertilizer at a lower cost.”
The sentiments irked Senators who demanded that farmers be compensated with top dressing fertilizer at no additional cost as both fertilizer cost Sh2,500.
The lawmakers questioned the compensation framework if at all farmers will be forced to buy the top-dressing fertilizer from National Cereal Produce Board (NCPB) at an additional cost.
“The President was very clear that farmers should be compensated. Compensation cannot come at an extra cost. Who will benefit from this extra cost they are paying yet they were given substandard fertilizer,” said the chair of the committee, James Murango.
Details emerged that KEL Chemicals, the firm that sold substandard fertilizer, dispatched 69,070 bags to the NCPB stores.
NCPB Managing Director Joseph Kimote told senators that they sold 64,374 bags of fertilizer on behalf the firm with Sh170 Million funds remitted to the firm within days.
Linturi said his Ministry has no additional budget to compensate farmers hence they will bear the additional cost should the remaining monies owed to KEL Chemical fall short of the total compensation.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture only 3,000 bags of fertilizer were substandard but a spot check by senators showed a possibility of extra bags.
In Nandi and Embu Counties alone, a total of 4,680 bags of fertilizer were substandard despite assertion by CS Linturi that only 3000 bags didn’t meet the necessary parameters.
“We are not going to pay the remaining monies for KEL Chemicals until investigation are concluded. There’s no cause for alarm until the investigation are done,” the Agriculture CS said.
Senators queried how substandard fertilizer was dispatched to NCPB stores with the government realizing substandard fertilizer distribution after farmers bought the farming product.
“Before we commenced the distribution, we were conceived that all the firms had met the standard. We did all due diligence, the firms had been in the market for a long period of time,” Kimote stated.
NCPB Managing Director explained that the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) and Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS) had ascertained that KEL Chemicals had compiled with all the requirements.
Kimote insisted NCPB has no quality assurance mechanism only a batch of the certified fertilizer had failed the necessary requirement test saying the firm should face the blame for the erroneous mistake.
“If they are issues with the standard, it’s the prerogative of the manufacturers to take into account. Our quality assurance doesn’t have the capacity. We rely on other government agencies,”he said.
President Ruto directed farmers who were issued with fake fertilizer compensated assuring farmers that the government has enough fertilizer for them.
At least eight senior officials at the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KeBS) have been suspended over the fake fertiliser fiasco.
They will be detained pending the ongoing probe into the matter by Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) detectives and Parliament.
Officials said the eight were interdicted over the issuance of certification and marks of quality to two companies, which have been linked to the sub-standard fertilizer.
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