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{
    "id": 461230,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/461230/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 173,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Keynan",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 41,
        "legal_name": "Adan Wehliye Keynan",
        "slug": "adan-keynan"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Speaker, Sir, for those of you who are familiar with the critical role this organization plays, all its bank accounts had been garnisheed as a result of a court order; M/s Erad Supplies and General Contracts Limited went to all the bank accounts of NCPB and garnisheed them. In the last two months, it has collected Kshs313 million. They also attached all their properties. In the last four years, the NCPB has been reduced to a shell. One and a half years ago, their annual business volume was almost Kshs5.2 billion. In the last one year, that has been reduced to about Kshs500 million. Who takes responsibility for that loss of earnings from Kshs5.2 billion to Kshs500 million? It is a whooping Kshs4.7 billion loss, and it is a cost to the taxpayer, as a result of this scandal. Those of you who are consumers of maize meal, like myself, must have noted a steady increase in the price of maize flour. Little did we know that these are the individuals who played a major role because there are no storage facilities. In fact, there is also a health element. The storage facilities have been attached. I have just said that the only district without a silo in the Republic of Kenya is Tharaka Nithi, which my able sister represents. The others have stores. Maybe that has not been documented. Even Balambala has one. When we visited the management, the Managing Director did not have a table or chair. The secretary was just looking at us while standing in the office. When we went there, the entire staff decided that they wanted to have an audience with us as if we were going to solve all their problems. We had a baraza with them and we promised, in the name of God, that the 11th Parliament and the Republic of Kenya that we were going to stand firm and protect the interests of Kenya, the board and the welfare and interests of the staff. We said that we would do whatever it takes to make sure that the NCPB is not rendered completely irrelevant simply because of the imagination of a couple of individuals. It was because of this that we invited the Attorney-General and asked him: As the legal advisor to the people of Kenya and the Government of Kenya, how come you are involved in this mega transaction? He said that the office of the Attorney-General had never been notified of these transactions. It was only when all the attempts to get injunction failed that they went to the office of the Auditor-General to seek assistance. I want to again say that it is because of the non-involvement of the office of the Attorney- General that there has not been an injunction in the Court of Appeal for the last five years. You can figure out how this process that touches on a very important institution has waded through all this process without an injunction. It is because of this that as a committee, once we were seized of the matter, we started evaluating all the information that was presented before us. One of the critical issues that we realised in this is that there was a management at the NCPB, a tender committee, a technical committee, presence of the strategic grain reserve (SGR), banks and Erad. The common denominator in this was that everybody was out to make a kill out of this very important institution, except one or two people like the office of Mr. Kinyua that I have mentioned. The Committee considered evidence from all the individuals, but I want to mention that this report took us a bit of time because sometimes getting information is very difficult. We met the management of the NCPB. We also met the officials of Erad Supplies and General Contracts Limited, who had a dispute as to who was the Managing 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."
}