{"id":461207,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/461207/?format=json","text_counter":150,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Hon. Keynan","speaker_title":"","speaker":{"id":41,"legal_name":"Adan Wehliye Keynan","slug":"adan-keynan"},"content":"It is good to appreciate how this issue came about. In 2004, a number of bureaucrats in the Government decided that there was a drought. In order to ensure that their cartels benefitted, they went ahead and persuaded the Government to declare that there was drought and famine. That was done in August. One-and-a-half months down the line, the same individuals, through correspondences that we are going to avail to this House, declared that there was a bumper harvest and, therefore, there was no need for importation of maize. When the “drought” was declared, the Government mandated the three trustee-Ministries overseeing the Strategic Grain Reserves (SGR), namely, the then Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of Special Programmes, to import white maize through the NCPB. Roughly, a total of 180,000 metric tonnes of maize were to be imported."}