Nyumba Kumi elders, chiefs to monitor maize flour prices to ensure compliance countrywide

Nyumba Kumi elders and chiefs will monitor maize flour prices across the country to ensure shops sell at the recommended rates even as the government roped in retailers into the Sh8 billion subsidy programme.

Retailers found selling the commodity at prices above those set in the subsidy programme, despite millers having signed a contract with government, will be arrested, said the Ministry of Agriculture.

However, the ministry has indicated that it would take at least three days for the product to sell at the subsidised rates across the country, as the government, millers and retailers take stock.

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya said the government has deployed officers to monitor retail outlets and millers’ depots and plants, to take stock and monitor prices, with an expected rise in demand for the product as prices come down.

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“For every miller who signs the contract, we deploy officers to go and work with them on the ground. We have also counter-intelligence that is running. We are working with the provincial administration because we are represented in every corner. We have assistant chiefs in every village, we have Nyumba Kumi. We want that network to help us ensure that Unga is available in every village in Kenya,” Mr Munya said.

The CS said Treasury had committed to release more cash on top of the Sh8 billion it allocated for the programme, if the current allocation gets depleted.

“We will be replenishing the account as we run the programme. In case the programme requires more money, Treasury is ready to support it,” he said.

The ministry, however, said only 80 per cent of millers across the country have been roped into the programme, with the remaining ones free to sell their product at prices they want.

Hoarding the product

While claiming that millers have been hoarding the product to maximise on profits partly leading to a hike in prices that saw a 2kg packet of maize flour retail at highs of Sh240 by last month, the CS said the contract with millers obligated the latter to not hoard the product.

“If you retail at higher price and the government is paying you, that is a crime. They should not try because they will be arrested,"he said.

The CS, however, said the government’s hands were tied on demanding millers who have not signed the contract to desist from hoarding the commodity.

"What else can we do other than urge them not to hoard. The maize is theirs, we can’t force them. We can just urge them to be humane and not hoard so much thus passing suffering to Kenyans," Mr Munya said.

In the new deal with millers, half a kilo of unga should retail at Sh30, a kilo at Sh52, 2kg at Sh100, 5kg at Sh250, 10kg at Sh490 and 50kg at Sh2,250.

Also read:City residents scramble for cheap Unga

Even in the subsidised rates, the poor man still remains on the suffering end, with prices comparatively high as the quantity one can afford buying reduces.

For instance, a person who affords the smallest quantity- 500 grams of maize flour- pays 33.3 per cent higher than one who can afford the 50kg bag. It is also 15.4 per cent expensive to buy the 500g packet as compared to the 1kg packet and 20 per cent compared to buying the 2kg packet.

Retailers said they were in talks with millers to calculate amount of stocks that had been purchased on high prices and to be sold at the subsidised rates, for refunds.

“We are working with millers because there has been stock which was received at higher prices and the subsidy allows millers to work with the retailer to recover a credit note, to be able to sell the stock at that recommended price,” said Ms Wambui Mbarire, the Chief Executive Officer of the Retail Trade Association of Kenya (Retrak).

Ms Wambui said before the directive to subsidise maize flour was issued by President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday, formal retailers such as supermarkets had 750 tonnes of maize flour in the shelves, estimated to cost Sh350 million.

CS Munya said an oversight committee on the programme would provide weekly progress reports to his office and liaise with National Treasury to ensure it is funded properly.

“I also want to appeal to the general public to purchase the flour in quantities they would normally use and avoid panic buying. The programme will succeed if we do the normal buying,” he said.

Logistical challenges

He added that even though the government has negotiated purchase of sufficient maize by Kenyan millers from Zambia, logistical challenges due to high transport costs and shortage of vehicles and ships to ferry the product was hindering timely delivery.

The CS said the ministry would publish the list of millers who have signed into the subsidy programme, with 70 having been roped in by Friday.

Addressing fears by some millers that the government failed to pay them during a similar programme in 2017, Mr Munya said Treasury was in the processing of settling a debt of Sh500 million.

“The government paid almost all the debts owed to millers and was left with debts that had issues with the East Africa Community (EAC). There were ongoing investigations and we were stopped from paying by EAC but now it is solved and we have agreed to settle it this time,” he said.

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