Friday, November 1, 2024 – Governors are up in arms against President
William Ruto, demanding fair distribution of fertilizer funds across the country.
This is after the Council of
Governors pressured Ruto’s government to delegate to counties the mandate to
distribute fertilizer.
Speaking during the
Intergovernmental Agriculture Forum held in Mombasa with the Ministry of
Agriculture, the governors argued that the national government should
allocate the role of fertilizers distribution and grants directly to them.
According to the governors, it
was wrong for the national government to assume the distribution role bearing
in mind that different farmers have different needs for different farm inputs.
”We cannot have fertiliser
where one size fits all. For every part of Kenya, there are people who usually
do crops that are different from what the fertiliser is meant for,’’ Muthomi
Njuki, Tharaka Nithi Governor, told a press briefing.
The governors also
argued that most farmers had been inconvenienced in the past because the
national government failed to know their specific needs compared to the local
authorities.
The governors further added that
it was wrong for the national government to continue with the role of
fertiliser distribution even as agriculture was a devolved function.
However, Agriculture Cabinet
Secretary Andrew Karanja promised that the two levels of government would work
together to see how a solution would be arrived at to avert the standoff.
The debate on fertilizers has
been a contentious issue in the country with the national government accused
of supplying fake inputs during the reign of former Agricultural CS
Mithika Linturi.
The Kenyan DAILY POST
