Nairobi — Agriculture Cabinet Secretary nominee Andrew Karanja has promised to be ruthless in the fight against corruption cartels at the Ministry.
Lawmakers sitting in the National Assembly Committee on Appointments that was vetting him took him to task to explain how he would deal with perennial graft at Kilimo House.
MPs raised questions about his resolve to face the corrupt mafia in the Agriculture Sector given his vast academic experience arguing he might not be shrewd to deal with the graft menace in the sector.
"The bedroom of corruption is the agriculture the others are sitting room and servant quarters. The nominee is a PhD holder, if approved you might be out of job in one year," Minority Leader Junet Mohammed said.
President William Ruto's administration was rocked by a fertilizer scandal during the tenure of Former Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi where farmers were supplied with substandard fertilizer scandal by companies contracted by the government to supply the farm input.
Tests by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs)found the fertiliser supplied by at least two of the companies, and some of which has been distributed to farmers across the country, was substandard.
The Agriculture nominee has issued a warning to the cartels in the sector saying he will not be edged out of office on the pretext of scandals within the sector.
"Dealing with cartels is a big issue but if approved I have given a notice that they will be out of business despite my background. What I hold dear is integrity and also hold dear the farmers issues.I will do whatever it takes and I have agency to deal with them," Karanja stated.
Karanja was also queried on measures he will institute to ensure the fertilizer subsidy programs achieve President William Ruto's plan to improve the country's food security through subsiding production.
Fertilizer subsidy programs have a history of being targeted by procurement and regulatory fraud due to the billions of shillings put in by the government.
In 2018, a similar scandal unfolded where KEBS officials,the managing director and nine other officials were arrested and charged with attempted murder for allowing imports of substandard fertilizer containing mercury.
"This is a critical program and is the center of food security and we have cartels which led to quality concerns of fertilizer. If approved this is one of the areas I will work in hands on to ensure the quality is okay. Cartel thrive where there is I lack of competition and openness,"the nominee said.
He pointed out that fertilizer procurement and distribution has been surrounded with scandals due to centralization of procurement and distribution of feterlizer at the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB)
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Once approved, Karanja said it will not be business as usual saying he will work with a multi-agency team to ensure farmers are not hoodwinked by fraudsters who often hijack the fertilizer subsidy program
"I will remove the focus on central procurement, so we remove the concentration of NCPB and have the farmers be able to procure from other companies ,"he said.
"I will have a governance structure on the way fertilizer is procured and distributed. I will have a multiagency team to ensure the quality of the feterlizer being distributed to farmers,"Karanja added.
Former Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi survived an impeachment motion against him over the fake fertiliser scandal in which the Agriculture minister and top officials of the State-owned National Cereals and Produce Board, had been implicated.
Given his political skills, Linturi wriggled his way out of the scandal after select committee investigating allegations against Linturi filed a report concluding the accusations against the minister were unsubstantiated.
Subsequently,the National Assembly voted to spare him by upholding the verdict of the report.
