A section of farmers in the North Rift region, the country's food basket, have hit out at the National Parliament Committee on Agriculture and Livestock members for deceiving them.
Led by the Uasin Gishu branch Kenya Farmers Asociation (KFA) director Kipkorir Menjo, the farmers said the committee while touring the region last week on a fact-finding mission, promised to address some for their urgent concerns among them delays in payments but nothing has been done so far."It is sad that despite the committee promising to table and pass the supplementary budget in one week time nothing had been done since it didn't appear on the order paper?" Menjo asked and revealed that they will have a crisis meeting on Friday to deliberate on the way forward on how to reduce the impact of 'government-induced poverty' facing the farmers.Speaking in Eldoret town on Wednesday, the KFA director wondered if the government was really serious in ensuring the nation is food secure."As farmers from this region we are tired and we might resolve to do other things instead of farming. How is the government expecting farmers to plant their crops without paying them for the maize delivered at the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB)?" he added.The farmers now want President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto to intervene and save them.They warned that should the current state go unaddressed, the country will be food insecure next year since most of them have planted under harsh conditions following delayed supply of subsidized fertilizer and payments of their produce by NCPB.