Probe sale of fake fertiliser, MPs order Auditor-General

A parliamentary committee yesterday directed Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu to carry out a special audit on the circumstances surrounding the sale of fake fertiliser on the day Opposition leaders told officials working in the Ministry of Agriculture led by Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi to resign over the scandal.

Public Investments Committee on Commercial Affairs and Energy chaired by Pokot South MP David Pkosing said the audit that would take one month, should seek to establish why the fake fertiliser was being distributed by the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) which is a government entity.

The committee told Gathungu to probe the systems not only in respect to the fertiliser but also for other consumable goods in order to understand how the said commodity found itself in the market without being passed through the necessary verification processes.

Said Pkosing: “We need to know the batching mechanism for KEBS to ascertain are these people passive that they only give okay to manufacturers and leave it there. Is that the case, if so then we are doomed as Kenyans.”

Audit process

He added: “We have asked the Auditor-General to audit this process and get to the bottom of it.”

The decision of the committee came after the committee members claimed that they are aware that the fake fertiliser had found its way into the sale of the subsidised fertiliser that the government has been distributing to farmers.

They demanded that they be issued with a Memorandum of Understanding between the SBL Innovate Manufacturers Limited that owns the alleged fake fertilizer and NCPB which distributed the said commodity.

Pkosing said that they want to establish the role of Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) owing to the fact that they are ones that lifted the lid on the sale of the fake fertiliser.

Pkosing said: “We want to know if KEBS has a grip of the value chain and if they are in control.”
Substandard goods

Leader of Minority and Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi claimed that he had information that the fake fertiliser is also in circulation through the subsidised fertiliser.

Wandayi (pictured) said: “I have information that the fake fertiliser is not limited to the one at NCPB but also the subsidised fertiliser.”

The leaders also asked President William Ruto to take responsibility over his government’s scandal that has seen farmers cry foul for buying substandard fertiliser.

Aldai MP Maryanne Kitany said that she is not only worried by the fact that fake fertiliser is in circulation, she raised concerned that Kenyans could be consuming substandard goods. She said: “Not so many days ago we had edible oils, now it is fertiliser. That fertiliser could be with my mother in the village, she is waiting for her crops to grow and there is nothing.”

The directive by the committee came on the day Senators Ledama Ole Kina (Narok), Edwin Sifuna (Nairobi), Enock Wambua (Kitui) and MPs Anthony Kibagendi (Kitutu Chache South) and Babu Owino (Embakasi East) said it was unfortunate that the government had failed the country’s farmers.

The leaders who spoke at Olokirikirai, in Narok North constituency, Narok County during the burial of celebrated journalist Rita Tinina also asked President William Ruto to take responsibility over his government’s scandal that has seen farmers cry foul for buying substandard fertiliser.

“We are demanding that those responsible led by the CS Linturi must quit. President Ruto must accept responsibility for the scam,” Sifuna said.

On his side, Wambua said it was disheartening that farmers now are getting sand mixed with donkey droppings as fertiliser while Ole Kina demanded an inquiry.

Kibagendi added; “This government promised a bottom-up economic policy, but it was a blatant lie. We are asking the government to reduce lies, greed and tribalism.