Samples of the subsidised Sh90 maize flour. Photo/capitalfm.co.keMany business people in North Rift are reluctant to stock and sell the government subsidised maize flour at Sh90 per two-kilogram packet because of low profits.
Traders in Baringo, West Pokot and Elgeyo Marakwet have defied the government directive to sell the maize flour at Sh90 and are instead selling above the pegged price in order to recover costs of transporting it.
“It makes no economic sense to sell the maize flour at Sh90 and end up in a deficit,” Paul Lotulo from Baringo, as quoted by Business Daily said on Monday.
He said traders in the area source the product from Nakuru, 167 kilometres away.
It also came to the lime light that wholesalers in North Rift have shunned stocking the subsidised maize product over insecurity.
A two-kilogram container of dry maize in the area retails at Sh150, Sh60 over and above the Sh90 pegged by the government.
In Turkana, traders sell the subsidised maize flour at between Sh140 and Sh180. A businessman in the county was last week arrested for selling the product at more than Sh90 according to County Criminal Investigations Officer Edward Imbwaga.
“The businessman was arrested with four bales of Jogoo maize flour. A bale had 12 packets of two-kilogram maize flour. He paid Sh90,000 fine failure to which he would have served two years in prison,” he said.
He said before the crackdown, residents had complained of exploitation by traders.
At a meeting held in Lodwar town last week, it was agreed that government through the office of the county commissioner will transport the commodity.
“The transport is meant to ensure the commodity remains available in shops but at a recommended price,” Imbwaga said.
In West Pokot, traders are selling the Sh90 maize flour at Sh160.