South Africa Envoy to Assist in Maize Probe

Nairobi Star (Nairobi)

George Murage

18 June 2011

The Kenya High Commissioner to South Africa has now given in to pressure to help investigate how GMO maize was imported into the country in 2009.

In a letter to the parliamentary committee on agriculture, the commission agreed to offer the MPs any support they required in their investigations.

Confirming the move, the committee chairman John Mututho said that they had received the email from the Commission over the matter. Last week, the committee expressed its frustrations accusing the High Commissioner of blocking their efforts to expose the scam where the country lost millions of shillings.

Mututho said that the committee would be visiting South Africa from next month to fully investigate the matter. “The commission, after so much pressure has agreed to co-operate with the committee and we shall be in South Africa for 10 days,”

Mututho said that during the importation in 2009, the country lost Sh2 billion to some well connected traders who used their high connections to fleece Kenyans. He said that in some of the cases, the traders imported the maize without any contracts and at inflated prices.

According to Mututho the maize in question was imported from 2009 and had high moisture content and contained toxic substances. “There were 32 consignments that were imported through Maputo in Mozambique without inspection and they were highly toxic,”

The Naivasha MP at the same time announced that the committees of agriculture, health and foreign affairs would later be traveling to USA. According to him, the tour was meant to investigate how contaminated maize from Houston in the US found its way into the country.

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