The National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) is on the spot over the delay to operationalise the National Food Reserve to handle emergency stocks, as more than 5.4 million Kenyans are faced with starvation and in urgent need of relief supplies and access to health care.
Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu says the board was supposed to start stocking the National Food Reserve and the trading divisions to deal with matters of Strategic Food Reserve and undertake commercial storage and trading in food commodities.
“The two divisions were created as per Circular Ref: MOA/B.1/6A dated 29 April 2020 but remain non-operational. The management is in breach of the law and the assurance of food security in the country could not be confirmed,” said Ms Gathungu in the latest audit report of September 2022.
NCPB, which is responsible for maintenance of the National Strategic Reserve of maize, wheat, and scheduled agricultural produce currently has no emergency stocks.
It did not get any money from The National Treasury allocations the last financial year to buy maize for the reserves.
Suspended
The strategic food reserve programme was suspended in 2019, meaning that the government has not been buying maize from farmers to be available during times of scarcity.
Since 2020, NCPB has not been buying maize on behalf of the government for the reserve. It has, however, been buying commercial maize for trading using internally generated funds.
A man rides past the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) – Eldoret depot in Uasin Gishu County. NCPB, which is responsible for maintenance of the National Strategic Reserve of maize, wheat, and scheduled agricultural produce currently has no emergency stocks
The Ministry of Agriculture has allowed traders to import 900,000 tonnes of duty-free white maize and 600,000 tonnes of duty-free milled maize from February to August this year.
Traders who were issued with import licences have so far shipped in 1.2 million, out of the 10 million bags of duty-free maize they were to import due to the scarcity of the commodity on the global market.
North Rift leaders
Leaders from the North Rift region, the country’s food basket, have demanded the reintroduction of the Strategic Food Reserves to cushion the country against food shortages, as more than 5.1 million Kenyans face starvation.
They want the Ministry of Agriculture to reinstate the scheme to handle emergency food stocks, as it emerges that the country is staring at a looming crisis due to delays in the arrival of imported maize to cushion consumers against the rising flour prices.
“We questioned why the previous administration did away with the Strategic Food Reserve … the ministry must restore the strategic grain reserve,” said the leaders, led by Uasin Gishu Senator Jackson Mandago.
He said the NCPB outlets were set up to mop up food stocks across the country to mitigate against shortages.
“If you go to the NCPB stores in Kitale, Eldoret, Kajiado, and Homa Bay, there is nothing, because the last time there was food in those stores was six years ago. We demand the ministry to revert the reserve so that we return the food reserves and hopefully we can get enough food this year and stock,” said the senator.
Under the Strategic Food Reserve Trust Fund regulations, of 2015, the role of the Strategic Food Reserve Fund was established to provide a physical stock that includes maize, beans, rice, fish, powdered milk, and canned beef.
The fund was supposed to stabilise the food supply and prices in the country, arrange for procurement, storage, and sale of food commodities and maintain adequate strategic food reserves in physical stock or cash equivalent at any one given time. BY DAILY NATION