Tuesday August 25, 2020
APPEAL: The Kenya Livestock Marketing Council chair Dubat Amey addressing the press in his Garissa office.
Image: STEPHEN ASTARIKO
Farmers from Garissa want the crucial departments of Agriculture and Livestock transferred to the national government and placed under the Office of the President.
Kenya Livestock Marketing Council chair Dubat Amey said the performance of the two departments was poor.
He told journalists in Garissa town that was the only way to save farmers and the institutions from being run down.
Amey, who is also the vice-chair of the Kenya Farmers Federation in Northeastern, asked President Uhuru Kenyatta to put the two departments under his office "to personally monitor them". “The ministry has crippled the Kenya Meat Commission meant to buy livestock from the pastoralists in Northern Kenya and the National Cereals and Produce Boards for maize farmers in North Rift among other institutions. We cannot continue sitting back and watching the ministry impoverish the farmer in this country,” he said.
He said the ministry had also failed to establish international markets for the camel, one of the most profitable animals for the pastoralists from Northern Kenya despite the country boasting of major ports in Mombasa and Lamu.
“We are not able to export the camels from Northern Kenya. The camels are instead driven by road to Moyale, then Ethiopia and Djibouti for onward export to the Arab world while we have two of the most developed ports in the coast,” Amey said.
Farmer Mohamed Abdi regretted that KMC has "turned out to be a cash cow for a few individuals and is no longer viable for the pastoralist communities in the country".
“The NCPB has shut down its doors to the farmers in the major counties that produce and depend on maize. But after the farmers have disposed their maize at a throwaway price, the ministry announces that the country has maize shortage allowing cartels to import the maize,” he added.