Lawmakers have asked President Uhuru Kenyatta to intervene and order the reinstatement of a Sh5.7 billion fertiliser subsidy that the Treasury has removed from the supplementary budget.
This is after it was revealed that the billions which had been allocated for purchase of assorted fertiliser in the Supplementary Budget had been mysteriously diverted to the Interior Ministry docket.
The revelation was made at a meeting between the National Assembly Agriculture Committee and Agriculture Chief Administrative Secretary Lawrence Omuhaka where the legislators threatened to paralyse the passage of the Sh138 billion mini-budget if the fertiliser subsidy is not reinstated by Tuesday.
“I was shocked to learn that the Treasury has removed the money that the committee approved for purchase of fertiliser. The committee had allocated Sh5.7 billion for fertiliser subsidy, but we are shocked that there is no single shilling allocated in the Supplementary Budget,” Silas Tiren, who chairs the committee, said.
“We will paralyse the supplementary budget on Tuesday if nothing happens to reinstate the entire amount between now and then,” he added.
The National Assembly’s Agriculture Committee said the Treasury had removed the entire amount that was meant to cushion farmers from the skyrocketing prices of fertiliser.
The committee said despite reallocating the budgetary requests for the Ministry of Agriculture to secure the Sh5.734 billion subsidy, Treasury had gone ahead and transferred the money to the security docket.
Omuhaka told MPs that the ministry was banking on the approval of Sh5.7 billion in the supplementary budget to help cushion vulnerable farmers ahead of the long-rain planting season.
The Sh5.7 billion is estimated to offer subsidies on 114,000 metric tons of various types of fertiliser for 910,000 vulnerable farmers.
“We are learning of the new development now. I will immediately contact my Cabinet Secretary (Peter Munya) who will, in turn, bring the matter to the attention of the Cabinet and by extension the President,” he said.
Omuhaka said that to maintain the price of ferilisers for farmers, a Sh31.85 billion subsidy will be required.
He said the amount is enough to procure 574,766 metric tons of assorted fertiliser.
A 90kg-bag of Diammonium Phosphate, which retailed at Sh3,000 late last year, is now selling at between Sh6,500 and Sh7,000.
Fertiliser prices have hit an all-time high on fears that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will curtail global supplies.
Russia was the world’s largest exporter of nitrogen products or planting fertliser in 2021.
The risk of disruption to shipments comes as fertiliser costs have already been soaring because of the high prices of natural gas in Europe, which forced some plants to halt or curtail production.
In Kenya, the cost of fertiliser has increased to Sh7,000 from a low of Sh4,000 last year, a blow to farmers who are preparing for the planting season that kicks off this month.
