- However, the government has refuted claims of counterfeit state-issued subsidised fertiliser.
- Speaking in Kuresoi, Nakuru, on Tuesday, Agriculture CS Mithika Linturi said the government fertilisers were scientifically tested and approved before circulation to farmers.
Image: FILE
Githunguri MP Gathoni Wamuchomba now wants the government to compensate all farmers who bought the alleged fake fertiliser.
"This must stop and every farmer who has been sold fake seeds must be compensated by the government. It is in line with the Constitution the right to protection of property that we are here speaking to make sure the government obeys and follows the rule of law," Wamuchomba said.
"Yesterday, I was presented with five bags of fertiliser purported to be fertiliser but it was fake stones mixed with waste from donkeys. We must call out this mess," she added.
However, the government has since refuted claims of counterfeit state-issued subsidised fertiliser.
Speaking on Tuesday in Kuresoi, Nakuru, Agriculture CS Mithika Linturi said the government fertilisers were scientifically tested and approved before circulation to farmers.
He, however, said the government has launched investigations, as a safety measure, to ensure that no counterfeit subsidised fertiliser is circulating.
Wamuchomba spoke on Tuesday during the unveiling of a new opposition alliance to keep the government in check alongside MPs Babu Owino, Mark Mwenje (Embakasi West), Caleb Amisi (Saboti), Wamuchomba (Githunguri) and Busia Women Representative Catherine Omanyo as leaders of the team in their respective regions.
Others are Amos Mwago (Starehe) and Charles Nguna (Mwingi West).
Wamuchomba in her remarks demanded that the state must also make immediate arrests of people selling the alleged fake fertiliser.
"This is something that we want to see serious arrests, we want to know who is behind this, we want to know where the real fertiliser is," she said.
"We want to know how much of that fertiliser, in terms of quantity has been released into our villages. We want to see data from the Ministry of Agriculture. We want to see serious arrests being done by the ministry, government and the Ministry of Interior."
This comes a few days after the Kenya Bureau of Standards confirmed that fake subsidised fertiliser is in the market.
The admission was made by Kebs, the standardisation agency, before the National Assembly’s Agriculture Committee.
Kebs managing director Esther Ngari told the committee that innocent farmers had been duped into buying the fakes, now confirmed to be Diatomite. The Kebs labels on them were also fake, she said.
So far the agency had impounded 5,840 bags of the alleged fake fertiliser bearing their standardisation marks.