President William Ruto has promised to review the farm-gate price of milk to Sh50 per litre starting March 1.
The president said some unscrupulous people were fleecing dairy farmers by buying milk and meagre prices of between Sh35 and Sh40 per litre despite the high cost of production.
Ruto who was on a tour of Nyandarua County where he was accompanied by his deputy, Rigathi Gachagua and a host of Cabinet Secretaries promised to fund Kenya Cooperative Creameries (KCC) to enable it to buy milk from farmers at favourable prices.
The Agricultural county of Nyandarua has often been suffering from a milk glut with farmers being compelled to spill their milk.
Unfavourable farm-gate milk prices amid the high cost of feed and fodder have impeded their income.
“I understand that milk farmers in Nyandarua have been pouring their milk produce and feeding it to dogs and I vow that this will never happen again because my government is funding KCC to collect all the milk,” said President Ruto.
He observed that milk farmers work very hard, including waking up at 4:00am to milk and they do not deserve the meagre pay they get for their produce.
Ruto promised that starting July, through the 2023/2024 Budget, his government will propose that milk farmers get paid for their deliveries fortnightly.
“I will propose that milk farmers get paid for their deliveries every two weeks to enable them by feeds. This will also help in fighting milk hawking,” he said.
He noted that farmers opt for hawking their milk to get quick money to buy feeds for their cattle because sometimes they are compelled to wait up to three months to get their money from the factory.
In the meantime, the President at the same time directed the government-owned milk processors to pay for milk deliveries every month instead of paying farmers after two to three months.
He said his government was committed to supporting agriculture adding the farmers were committed to making the country food secure.
“When the government reduced the cost of fertiliser from between Sh6,500 to Sh7,000 per 50kg bag to Sh2500, farmers worked very hard and increased maize production from 44 million 90kg bags in 2022 to 61 million bags last year,” he said.
The President and his deputy and Kenya Kwanza politicians continued their war of words against the judiciary saying that they would not allow one to curtail development projects in the country.
They said it was hypocritical for a few moneyed people to use the court to impede development and later claim that the government did not deliver on its promises to the people.
“A few people feel that they have money to pay lawyers and bribe the court, I will fight corruption in the court, I am the lawyer for the poor,” vowed Ruto.
He maintained that he would continue with the affordable housing project and the new health insurance fund despite court orders barring the government from doing so.
President Ruto said an affordable housing project will be launched on a 10-acre piece of land in Nyandarua to offer people decent housing units while at the same time offering job opportunities to the youth.
He said 15 flats will be built for the housing project in Nyandarua’s Ol-Kalou town a project that will change the county’s face.
