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{
    "id": 1431840,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1431840/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 214,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Soy, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. David Kiplagat",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " No. Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. As a member of the Departmental Committee on Agriculture and Livestock, I rise to support the Report that has been tabled by our able Chairman. Firstly, regarding the maize subsidy program that was implemented just before elections, our investigations, which took more than six months, revealed quite a lot of inconsistencies. We felt that right from start, there was no value for money. Secondly, you realise from the Report that we have categorised the millers into two types. They are the large-scale millers who constitute the Cereal Millers Association (CMA), and the small-scale millers who constitute the GMOA. At the outset, the meeting that took place at State House involved the CMA, whose members are the large-scale millers. They are the ones who designed the architecture of the program. If you look closely, by the time they met, the large-scale millers were owed about Ksh500 million. From the design, they were paid before the project began. That means the whole architecture was to ensure that, at least, the flour reached the consumer. Upon auditing the process, we could not know whether the subsidised flour reached the consumers. There was no mechanism that stopped a miller from releasing the flour in between for auditing purposes. From our investigations, we believe that the designers of the program, comprising of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, and other State actors, together with the large-scale millers; colluded to defraud this country of over Ksh7.6 billion. Looking at the payment that was already made under Article 223 of the Constitution, they spent about Ksh4 billion and Ksh500 million went to payment of arrears of Financial Year 2017/2018. The GMOA, who are the small-scale millers, were very forthright. They were only factored in when the entire architecture had been done. When they appeared before the Committee, they said they had not seen a mechanism for delivering to consumers. Instead, they milled the flour and distributed it to the many people outside their gates. We felt that we could not punish the millers who did not know the architecture of what was going on. Instead, they milled and sold the flour to whomever was outside their gate. So, the The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}