The Departmental Committee on Agriculture, Lands and Natural Resources
says the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) managing director
should also be fired for mishandling the sale of maize from the stores.
Investigations should be carried into actions of the Permanent
Secretary, ministry of Agriculture, Permanent Secretary, ministry of
Special Programmes, Managing Director, National Cereals and Produce
Board and all officers in volved in maize importation to establish
whether there was professional negligence, says the report. It also
wants the Kenya Anti-corruption Commission to investigate the Cabinet
ad hoc sub-committee on food security on alleged irregularities in
maize imports.
On Mr Odinga's family, the MPs say that based on the evidence adduced
before the committee, on maize importation, the committee recommends
that the role of personal assistant to Prime Minister, the Prime
Minister's family, the son and associates in all this import saga and
particularly, possible link to maize importers, be investigated further
to establish whether indeed the companies were registered in Kenya or
foreign as alleged.
Price increase
The report that was tabled in Parliament yesterday by the committee
chairman, Mr John Mututho (Naivasha) is a culmination of investigations
into the acute maize shortage that hit the country early this year. The
report points to an erroneous projection of maize stocks as the source
of the maize shortage and the consequent famine.
The committee investigated the alleged maize shortage, causes of price
increase for food and possible or proposed recommendations on the
causes and future mitigation measures. However, reached for comment,
Prime Minister Raila Odinga described the call for investigation on the
role of his family in the scandal as a bunch of nonsense.
Speaking through his spokesman, Mr Dennis Onyango, the PM said: It is
a bunch of nonsense and House committees need to be led by men and
women of integrity if their reports are to be taken seriously. NCPB
boss Gideon Misoi said he would comment after reading the report. Once
I have read it, I will be more than willing to comment on the findings.
Efforts to reach Special Programmes PS Mohammed Ali and his Agriculture
counterpart, Dr Romano Kiome, were futile because their telephones went
unanswered. The two did not reply to inquiries made through phone
messages. While tabling the report, Mr Mututho said that, the sacking
of Dr Kiome, Mr Ali and Prof Misoi would pave way for investigations
and allow criminal or civil proceedings to be instituted against them.
The MP said the committee had done its work and it was up to Parliament
to adopt or reject the report. We have done our work on behalf of
Kenyans and we leave the rest to Parliament, he said while tabling the
findings in the House. He said the committee had perused between
5,000-6,000 documents to support claims in the massive report.
Parliament will debate the report after it is allocated time by the
House Business Committee, which sets the agenda of the House. If
adopted by MPs, the government will be obliged to implement the
recommendations. Mr Mututho said that his team had been wrongly accused
of protecting Agriculture minister William Ruto with regard to the
maize scandal.
I wish to correct the wrong impression created that we are covering up
for the minister. We are not protecting anyone and this is not about
politics, he said. His team, he said, established that a Cabinet
committee had usurped the minister's powers of organising purchase of
1.7 million bags of maize.
Mr Mututho's committee heaps blame on the scandal on the Cabinet ad hoc
committee on food security. The team of 11 MPs accuses the committee
chaired by the Prime Minister of being responsible for the maize
shortage and playing a part in the maize scandal, claiming that it had
deliberately over-priced purchase of 1.7 million bags imported to meet
the maize deficit.
The ad hoc committee was in charge of the importation of maize, and
according to Mr Mututho's team, it did have influence on the companies
that tendered for the maize imports. According to the parliamentary
team, the Cabinet committee altered the tender specifications to allow
the highest bidder to win the tenders.
The report says the team had received evidence that at the tendering
period, one of the bidders was able and was willing to supply
non-genetically modified maize at $150 (Sh12,000) for a tonne but did
not qualify. Instead, the report says, the Cabinet committee settled
for a bidder quoting $430 a tonne, almost three times more than what
the lowest bidder had offered.
This, says the parliamentary committee, resulted in the country buying
only 1.7 million bags when settling for the lowest bidder would have
enabled it to purchase up to 5 million bags.
Daily Nation
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