Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi has slightly opened up about the Kenya- Zambia deal.
Speaking on Tuesday, the CS said that due to the ongoing court case, he couldn’t disclose the MoU between the two countries.
“I regret that I can’t give details of the Kenya-Zambia MoU. My hands are tied because Kenyans have become very litigious,” he said.
The CS mentioned this as he summoned over 20 local maize millers over the price of unga.
In the meeting which will be on Friday, the CS will be seeking to know why they are yet to lower the prices of unga depending on their brands.
The High Court in Nairobi last week temporarily stopped the government's plan to contract Zambian large-scale farmers to grow maize for exclusive exportation to Kenya.
Judge Mugure Thande temporarily barred the Ministry of Agriculture from implementing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) requiring Zambia to produce maize for Kenya.
The judge issued the order following a request by the Farmers Party of Kenya, which wants the deal quashed.
The court order bars Agriculture Linturi from taking steps towards the implementation of the MoU that he signed last month with his Zambian counterpart Mtolo Phiri.
The MoU allowed the cultivation of maize on a large scale for the Kenyan market, in what was seen as an intervention by the government to curb long-term food insecurity.
But the Farmers Party, which is led by former Principal Secretary Irungu Nyakera, argues in the lawsuit that the government should support local Kenyan farmers to produce high quality and high quantity food because agriculture is the backbone of the Kenyan economy.
However, CS Lituri said he will be able to put everything on the table after he is done with the petition.
He said he went to Zambia courtesy of the Food and Agriculture Organization and not to bring maize to Kenya.
“I didn't go to Zambia to look for land or maize to bring back to Kenya. My trip was funded by the Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) & they've given me $5.2M to implement the Kenya Integrated Agriculture Management Information System(KIAMIS),” Linturi added.