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"id": 821342,
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"content": "Kenya Defence Forces of the national disaster through executive Order No.1 of 2017, duty shall be waived on certain products.” During that time, the companies that were allowed to import duty free maize into this country are listed in this gazette notice. They were given 373,000 metric tonnes. The Act is clear and set out the period within which the duty free importation would take place. It says that it is six months and certain conditions have to be met. I am looking at the second task, which is the quantity of duty free maize imported into the country during the duty free window, which was to end in October, 2017 and why the period was extended. It is clear in the Act that the period can be extended up to 12 months. We, therefore, need to look at the issue of strategic grain reserve. Did we have enough maize in the country and did these people import the 373,000 metric tonnes of white and yellow maize during the stipulated period of six months before it was extended? These are the things that will guide this House when advising the current Cabinet Secretary (CS) of the National Treasury, so that when he meets his counterparts they can agree to look at these matters on a case by case basis. That is what the Act says. I hope that this Ad hoc Committee will extend its mandate to look at the entire grain reserve in the country. We need to establish how much we need to consume, for example, in Narok County, Trans Nzoia County, Nairobi County or Mombasa County, so that the Cabinet Secretary can advise, before a gazette notice is issued, that in Kenya our farmers can produce X amount of grain and, therefore, the only amount that we can allow for importation is X amount. When you look at the list of companies that were allowed to import maize duty free, you will see the variation in terms of the quantity that they were given to import. Some were given 36,000 metric tonnes and others 1,000 metric tons. So, we have to look in detail why they were given this time. As I said earlier, I want to congratulate Cabinet Secretary, Hon. Kiunjuri, and the Principal Secretary, Dr. Lesiyampe, for the action they took. Last week, the wheat farmers of Narok and Eldoret were concerned about a similar gazette notice that had been published by the East African Community (EAC), which gave a window for millers to import tax free wheat into this country. They had been allowed to import up to 30 million metric tonnes of wheat into this county. When the farmers started harvesting their wheat, the millers said that they were importing because it was expensive to buy from them. However, Hon. Kiunjuri, Dr. Dr. Lesiyampe and I met with the farmers and the millers. We set a condition that the millers must, first, mop out all the local wheat from the farmers before they import. These are the things that this Committee ought to look into. At times, when this window is opened, a farmer could have harvested and delivered his maize to NCPB. Therefore, this Committee should not restrict itself to looking at only the maize crisis. They have to interrogate the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury, so that they can agree. When the Cabinet Secretary extended the gazette notice, although the Act provides for him to do that---"
}