A section of elected leaders in the North Rift region has come to the defense of farmers who have been linked to the Sh1.9 billion scandal at the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB).
Speaking in Turbo constituency on Sunday, the leaders led by Uasin Gishu governor Jackson Mandago and Kapseret Member of Parliament Oscar Sudi said it was wrong for the government to brand genuine farmers as cartels.
The leaders insisted that thorough investigations must be conducted so that real cartels are unmasked, arrested and prosecuted.
“We cannot allow our farmers to be branded as cartels. Relevant government agencies must swing into action and give us names of the real cartels and leave farmers alone,” said Mandago.
“Those farmers who helped others need to be protected and not branding them as cartels. Farmers cannot be cartels,” added Sudi.
This comes even as the NCPB scandal continues to draw mixed reactions with farmers implicated saying they are real farmers and only bought more maize bags from other farmers who requested them to do so as they could not manage to wait in the long queues.
It is believed that some traders purchased maize from neighboring Uganda and later masqueraded as farmers and delivered the produce to the cereals bought after which they were paid promptly at the expense of actual farmers, most of who never supplied the produce, and if they did, they are yet to be paid.