MAIZE: WILLIAM RUTO SINGH, OVER TO YOU SIR!

[jakaswanga]

THE FOOD WATCH, AND THEN HENRY ROTICH.

But the man to watch is William Ruto Singh, the President in waiting. He is the guy I am pinning on this maize thing. First, without humour.

In the last two months the price of maize flour in the Kenya (supermarkets) has inflated by at least 15%. Ugali is a staple. May be important, may be not. Staple is what is affordable! (The Kenyan elite has no relationship with Ugali which can be described as STAPLE! One must think through ones classifications!) Ugali is the staple of jua-kali and hoi-polloi, and the rest of the one poor meal a day skeletons recently chronicled in a United Nations report on nutrition!

But here we go!

ACT ONE: www.nation.co.ke/news/Weve-enough-maize-to-feed-country-says-Ruto/-/1056/3265668/-/fdwdpk/-/index.html

Speaking on Friday in Kirinyaga County after opening a tea factory in Gichugu, Mr Ruto warned millers to stop acting like cartels, saying the National Cereals and Produce Board stores have 10 million bags of maize and that it is enough to feed the country.

On Thursday, a millers’ lobby said its members had reduced production to 39 per cent of capacity as a maize shortage intensifies, pushing up the unit cost of production.

The chairman of the Cereal Millers Association, Nick Hutchinson, said maize supply had remained unstable, causing flour prices to go up by about Sh15 in the past three months

Ruto is tight-lipped here, but there is of course the murky matter of NCPB grain silos full of stuff unfit for human consumption. Mor about that later.


A farmer and her workers harvest maize at Moiben in Kenya’s Uasin Gishu Count

Keep this in mind

Ugandan maize lowers Kenya prices

Saturday, January 23 2016

Kenya's maize brokers who have been hoarding huge stocks of last year’s harvest, in anticipation of an increase in prices, may not realise their expectations as cheaper imports from Uganda flood the market.
The maize from Uganda will help stabilise Kenyan prices, which are currently at Sh3,900 ($38) in Mombasa and Sh3,700 ($36) for a 90kg bag in Nairobi.

The cost of agricultural production in Uganda is low compared with what Kenyan farmers have to spend on land tilling and harvesting.
Kenya Farmers Association director Kipkorir Menjo said the imports from Uganda will be a big disadvantage for farmers who would have sold their produce later this year.

is there an invisible hand working at the supply of maize? The price of flour and market therefto is too lucrative to be left to supply and demand NCPB corrupt moghuls to regulate?

We visit another factor in our long tale

ACT TWO:

NCPB buys Sh887m maize as rivalry with millers pushes price up

Thursday, January 21 2016

The National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) has purchased maize worth Sh887 million as rivalry with millers pushes the price of the produce high to the benefit of farmers.
The NCPB has bought 386,266 bags of maize offering Sh2,300 per bag while millers anticipating a shortage after massive post-harvest losses, are offering Sh2,600.
“We have so far bought 378,420 bags valued at about Sh870 million in the North Rift region,” said Rose Adanje, NCPB’s corporate affairs manager.

In Western Kenya the board has purchased 7,846 bags of maize at Sh18 million as farmers rush to sell the cereals to avoid losses caused by resurgence of El Niño rains pounding various parts of the country.
Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Willy Bett has warned of post-harvest losses by farmers amounting to a million bags of maize due lack of drying facilities during the El Niño rains.
Mr Bett said the losses were likely to compromise the country’s food security adding that the government has waived the drying charges on maize and subsidised the cost of farm inputs

The battle between great players in the market, the story of when two elephants fight? Until they reach a gentleman's truce behind the scenes and form a cartel ---like the famous story of OIL COMPANIES, the original seven sisters!



But the NCPB could be in a bind due to this ... kind of lost gamble

Fresh test on NCPB maize after Sh1bn grain declared unfit

Posted Wednesday, June 29 2016 at 19:21

In Summary
Officials will test the maize stored in silos owned by the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB), which manages food reserve stocks.

The quality of maize in the Strategic Food Reserve will be reviewed amid concerns that grain worth more than Sh1 billion is unsuitable for human consumption despite a shortage which has sparked a rally in flour prices.
Officials from the Kenya Bureau of Standards, the Health Ministry and the East Africa Exchange (EAX) will test the maize stored in silos owned by the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB), which manages food reserve stocks.

Their appointment follows revelations that a quarter of maize stocks held at the NCPB is only fit for making animal feeds as Kenyans grapple with a grain shortage that has seen the cost of flour rise 16 per cent since March.

National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) chairman Geoffrey King’ang’i (centre) checks the quality of maize grains at Eldoret’s NCPB depot on Tuesday

Allowing, by negligence wrought of corruption and criminal design, a strategic reserve of staple grain, ksh.1bn worth, to go to the dogs is an act of economic sabotage which, if you ask me, apart from treasonable ... ranks a crime against humanity. And in the light of a debt-ridden infrastructure spendthrift economy with a cash-flow problem called crunch, it occurs to me a better target for Nkaissery's tormented rage than hate-speeching demonstrators.

Two illustrations why such sabotage is not permissible for ambitious high-fliers.

1, Those who watch human tragedy columns would know how often reports come to light of either parent maiming or killing their child because they lost ksh.50 bob change while playing on the way to the market.
That is the reality of the Kenyan consumer out there. Ksh. 100 is a fortune. This is why I am taking this up with the future president William Ruto. Middle Income country could be a statistical illusion verifiable only in the virtual reality of theory!

Take a walk through the slums.

2. Those who know how to read between the lines of financial columns will glean from the following, what a cash-crunch close shave it was … only a few hours before …

The head of state signed a Bill authorising the national government to draw money from the Consolidated Fund to finance its operations for the balance of the last financial year.
Mr Kenyatta's action came only a few hours before the financial year lapsed.
The President also signed another law giving the Treasury the authority to draw money from the Consolidated Fund to pay for public services in the new financial year, which starts Thursday.
“The President signed the Appropriations Act 2016, that allows the National Treasury to issue out of the Consolidated Fund to spend in the year ending 30 June 2017,” said State House spokesman Manoah Esipisu in a statement.
“This Act essentially paves the way for government spending for the next financial year and is effective 1 July 2017,” he wrote.

Remember that breakfast with Jubilee Mpigs out which the President stormed out after a shouting match!? He had a deadline to beat and the Mpigs were still *pusifooting about who controls the CDF spoil.

Therefore me asserts, when it comes to the price of food, a nation can not afford to take prisoners. I already told the tale elsewhere of my research into old African norms of punishment for rogues (or even madmen) who, having eaten enough, burn down the granary that takes care of tomorrow's hunger for the whole home, and village.
The punishments are horrible as I warned Patrick Njoroge, thinking of the central bank, with its power to manufacture money and dictate its price, a national granary better be wel run this time around, unlike the preceding tenure of the thieving professor come pimp, Njugunah Ndung'u.


BETT: “Millers cannot purport that there is a shortage of maize in the country as a justification for price increase. The current cost of the flour is uncalled for,” says Mr Bett.

Mr. Bett is an insider. Insiders should know. Therefore, if shortage, reduce supply, is not the explanation for the price rice (as the text book case goes), where do we go from here then?

Market manipulation I think. Deliberate price action. Then is it so, that somebody, some people, or organisation, are powerful enough to manipulate for private gain, the price of a stable such as to starve the poorest Kenyans some more.

And there is the warrior Samoei out there, running around the country campaigning, and not facing this issue square. Does it mean it is to his gain? that he is conflicted? emasculated upfront and thus tamed in response?

I am thinking out loud.

ACT THREE

The government normally sets the price of maize that is purchased by the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) to act as a benchmark for the market price.

Mr Bett said he would meet millers in the coming days to raise concerns over the high cost of the staple that has put households under pressure in the wake of rising cost of living resulting from an increase in the price of fuel.
“Millers cannot purport that there is a shortage of maize in the country as a justification for price increase. The current cost of the flour is uncalled for,” says Mr Bett.
The price of a two-kilogramme packet of maize has been rising over the past two months, with all the major brands retailing at above Sh100, piling pressure on the majority of households who rely on the commodity as their staple.

www.nation.co.ke/business/Maize-flour-price-increase-is-unfair/-/996/3257132/-/gplqe8/-/index.html

A two-kilogramme packet of Jogoo is selling at Sh110, Pembe Sh101, Soko 101 and Hostess Sh147 in most supermarkets. Millers say the cost will continue going up until they get adequate stocks.
The State says that the current price of maize is Sh2,400 per bag even though millers say that they are buying a 90-kilogramme bag at Sh2,700.

Millers have always been referred to as cartels, which connive to increase the price at a go, a tag that they have fought hard over the years to shed.
The Cereal Millers Association (CMA) says the price of flour is informed by the market forces of demand and supply and that it has never had a hand in fixing the cost.
CMA Chairman Nick Hutchinson says the current price increase has been sparked by the shortage of maize, which has made it hard for firms to accumulate stocks for milling.

Cross the border into Uganda, like Busia Uganda. Walk a 500 meters into Uganda. What do you see?
Truck after truck full of maize all the way to Jinja! They grow maize over there, but they do not eat it. Now, let us go to Isebania sides on the border with Tz. ---But prices will continue to rise until adequate is the supply! Or is it, Hey William Ruto, the prices will rise to the level which satisfies the greed index of the cartel? you know, like Patrick Njoroge who was at first threatened by bankers to live interest rates at the level the market determined. Then, growing nerve, Patrick Njoroge peered closer, and, heck, behold! the Kenyan bankers were a cartel running an interest rates scam! --Of course with people like Ouru Kenyatta being banking aristocrats and the Kenyan government a credit junkie, the looting equation squared nicely and scaringly enough! politicology wise that is! But that is another story altogether

Back to maize then. It is a bit like the story of Kenya sugar companies and cane growers. Everybody else –-Uganda, Madagascar, Brazil, the EU, Mauritius, can grow and produce sugar to sell in Kenya at ksh.60/kg.
You can subsidise Mumias Sugar yes, but there is perhaps something much more fundamental to be done first. Elsewhere we already saw the World Bank saying the labour productivity of Kenyans is a hyena racing against the Ugandan leopard. But, if one looks at the PAY! KENYAN executives earn the sun, Ugandans the moon.

William Ruto Singh sir, now that you are through with that Chiromo Phd in zoology, I suggest you spend more time punching through econometrics and trying to make sums add up. Good homework believe me. Otherwise your presidency will implode when debtors come calling your bluff. I am of course hoping REALITY does not beat them to it!

NB: Here below I propose to comment on the complexity of these situations by visiting the Egyptian wheat case. Following this ...

CS Henry Rotich’s decision to lower duty on wheat faulted

By Lee Mwiti Updated Sat, June 11th 201

Wheat farmers will suffer the most after the Treasury lowered import duty on the produce from 35 to 10 per cent. Speaking in a public forum to discuss Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich’s budget proposals, financial services provider Grant Thornton, senior tax and advisory partner Parag Shah said the move was ill-fated and a blow to farmers since it was only meant to protect local millers, but slowly strangle local producers
.
www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/article/2000204798/cs-henry-rotich-s-decision-to-lower-duty-on-wheat-faulted

who is your daddy now, Ruto!

Put another way: who do you really think will vote for you!? homework is to take them more seriously than you do now and seriously seduce them with more than lip service!

Now you are just a cartel meal.

[jakaswanga]

CS Henry Rotich’s decision to lower duty on wheat faulted

By Lee Mwiti Updated Sat, June 11th 201

Wheat farmers will suffer the most after the Treasury lowered import duty on the produce from 35 to 10 per cent. Speaking in a public forum to discuss Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich’s budget proposals, financial services provider Grant Thornton, senior tax and advisory partner Parag Shah said the move was ill-fated and a blow to farmers since it was only meant to protect local millers, but slowly strangle local producers
.
www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/article/2000204798/cs-henry-rotich-s-decision-to-lower-duty-on-wheat-faulted

Read more: jukwaa.proboards.com/post/new/9509#ixzz4DHJKglK7 mm

ERGOT FUNGUS???

en.aswatmasriya.com/news/details/17187

Egypt, with a demand in excess of 7 million tonnes of wheat per year which is a price determining demand, has ostensibly reduced its imports from all states and has sent back several shipments that contained the ergot fungus, certain levels of which are banned in wheat. No, not quite like that, the ex Field Marshall in Cairo is a clown running a theatrical regime, one power center says this, another that: we call it confusion. And markets do hate confusion.

Why not a search for green pastures meanwhile as the markets wait for Egypt to man up?

And, howbeit, just at this moment, Henry Rotich has reduced the import duties on wheat? Once traumatised being twice paranoid, I would prefer to see Rotich$Ruto come out strongly to rule out the possibility of a Kenyan bureaucracy bribed to import substandard and diseased food, for another bout of mass poisoning. No? this outrage is what happened during the Kibaki-Raila period, when contaminated maize was imported from among others, South Africa, enriching the political elite at the expense of poor peoples health.

I will be damned to get caught twice with the same trick executed by the same persons! That is not just contributory negligence, that is positively a suicide wish fulfilled. Now I do not see Wanjiku as suicidal, she is more a victim of power with impunity.

So let us be vigilant here. Learning from our rotten past. THE FAO promotes the Codex international food standards. What do our labs do to get around the problem? To meet or not meet the standard.

Egypt cancels wheat tender amid regulatory confusion
Authorities at odds with each other on grain fungus restrictions
February 2, 2016

Egypt has cancelled its tender for wheat in a move that has caught international grain traders unprepared.

The world’s largest importer of wheat received no offers for its latest tender after its agricultural authorities formerly rejected a cargo of wheat from Bunge, the international grain trader, on the grounds of grain fungus levels.

Most countries, including Egypt, comply with the Codex Alimentarius food standards code established by the UN Food and Agricultural Organization and the World Health Organisation, which allows a 0.05 per cent ergot level for wheat. @ft

Aggressive salesmen are selling. Africa is well-known dumpyard for poison, even cancerous skin-bleaching chemicals.

FOCUS ON EGYPT: THE POLITICS OF IMPORTING WHEAT

For those really interested in global food politics and how a local IMPEX merchant class controlling agricultural policy through proxy bureaucrats can turn national priorities upside down, analysing and unraveling how the reforms the deposed Islamic Brotherhood president, Mohammed Morsi, proposed to unleash upon Egypt contributed to his demise will be instructive.

Continued.

[jakaswanga]

Jul 2, 2016 21:50:42 GMT 3 jakaswanga said:

CS Henry Rotich’s decision to lower duty on wheat faulted

By Lee Mwiti Updated Sat, June 11th 201

Wheat farmers will suffer the most after the Treasury lowered import duty on the produce from 35 to 10 per cent. Speaking in a public forum to discuss Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich’s budget proposals, financial services provider Grant Thornton, senior tax and advisory partner Parag Shah said the move was ill-fated and a blow to farmers since it was only meant to protect local millers, but slowly strangle local producers
.
www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/article/2000204798/cs-henry-rotich-s-decision-to-lower-duty-on-wheat-faulted

Aggressive salesmen are selling. Africa is well-known dumpyard for poison, even cancerous skin-bleaching chemicals.

FOCUS ON EGYPT: THE POLITICS OF IMPORTING WHEAT

For those really interested in global food politics and how a local IMPEX merchant class controlling agricultural policy through proxy bureaucrats can turn national priorities upside down, analysing and unraveling how the reforms the deposed Islamic Brotherhood president, Mohammed Morsi, proposed to unleash upon Egypt contributed to his demise will be instructive.

Continued.

Now, pray don't I tell, why on Earth would I go all the way to Egypt and their wheat mess to have a lesson learnt on how a cartel of bureaucrats, securocrats, politicians, grain executives, international malafide business middlemen, can all combine to bring a nation to its knees by your run-of-the-mill-ills --- hunger, malnutrition and related health complications?

Why don't I just delve into our own Great Maize scandal of 2009, and elucidate it all, with references like this

2009 Kenyan Maize Scandal

This was a scandal in Kenya that became public in January 2009, over the sale of imported maize. In late 2008, the ban on importation of maize was lifted by the government to allow capable businessmen to import maize to supplement the local produce that was short of the minimum required to satisfy the local market.

In early 2009 after parliamentary debate on a maize scandal, William Ruto was accused of illegally selling maize by Ikolomani MP Bonny Khalwale (Public Accounts Committee chairman). All the documents bearing the National Cereals and Produce Board seal that linked Mr Ruto to the illegal sale of maize were accepted by Parliament’s deputy speaker.[1]

I don't do local because we all would be emotionally involved and probably have a civil war instead, and as I said elsewhere to qualify why I was ever on the Oga-case in Abuja while the same blueprint was replicating verbatim at a city near me, to be emotionally involved is to be mentally clouded too. And these things need cold and clinical takes!

Obviously if I visit the 2009 maize scandal, there is no way I could be bothered to take William Ruto seriously on his utterances about food safety or security in Kenya. He was minister for Agriculture and maize, and a sh!tty laughing stock was his regime.

Wikipedia reports. From our own national archives.

The following ministries and departments as have been implicated:

Ministry of Agriculture – The PS in this ministry was a signatory to the SGR quota allocations.
Ministry of Special Programmes – The PS in this ministry was a signatory to the SGR quota allocations.
Ministry of Finance & Treasury department – The PS in this ministry was a signatory to the SGR quota allocations.
Ministry of the Prime Minister – The PS in this ministry was a signatory to the SGR quota allocations. The Office of the Prime Minister also gave instructions not to return the contaminated maize back to South Africa and was retained in Kenya to be destroyed.[3]
The Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission is currently investigating the scandal but is yet to make an official report on its findings.[4]

That is power against the people.

In this thread I want to refer to Ruto as a future president. This is the official case, just like the official case is to refer to any African head of state as His Excellency. Of course one needs a dose of self-depreciating stupidity to take the official case in Africa seriously, but there we are. The great game of make-believe is a comical show worth all the fun when it runs, O Africa.

Here is an earlier look on Jukwaa at the NCPB subversion saga, and in the mix Erad Supplies, linked to the gangland-style-slain Jacob Juma. One could be forgiven for being cynically tempted enough to think –---good riddance of vermin!

(see there, falling deep into the emotional trap!).

www.nation.co.ke/News/Top-officials-now-linked-to-the-Sh561m-NCPB-scandal/-/1056/1886382/-/81f2o0/-/index.html

Top past and present government officials have been dragged into the saga in which the National Cereals and Produce Board risks losing Sh561 million to a firm said to exist only on paper.

Agriculture permanent secretary Romano Kiome told the Public Investments Committee on Monday that the names of top officers could have been used by Mr Jacob Juma, the managing director of Erad General Suppliers and Contractors, to peddle influence in getting decisions made in his firm’s favour.

Erad is involved in a protracted legal tussle with NCPB over a contract to supply maize on an emergency basis during a drought that was declared a national disaster in 2004. It never supplied the maize.

Dr Kiome read a letter copied to him by one Brian Yongo, who had written to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to have Mr Juma investigated.

Mr Yongo was reported to have claimed that Mr Juma boasted to him of his friendship with Treasury permanent secretary Joseph Kinyua and other influential personalities like Mr Francis Kimemia and Mr David Kimaiyo.

Mr Juma was also reported to have bragged that he was also friends with Judicial Service Commission member Ahmednassir Abdullahi.

Read more: jukwaa.proboards.com/thread/8573/collapse-ncpb-corruption-beast#ixzz4DKQNKPuE ...

These things are all running saga's. They are variations of themes within a crisis. Instalments or episodes in the same drama. The same people collapsing the house are the same people we delegate to build it, again and again. After several attempts with the same results with the same cast, ones normal survival instinct will predict the result to 100% certainty come the same situation.

Years later, the former agriculture minister William Ruto is back on his way to the very top warning millers against cartelism!?

How do you do de-ja-vu without humour?

www.nation.co.ke/News/House-team-told-of-top-officials-role-in-Sh561m-NCPB-scandal/-/1056/1887382/-/p5un43z/-/index.html

House team told of top officials’ role in Sh561m NCPB scandal

Get annoyed! That is what lawyer Katwa Kigen told members of the Public Investments Committee to do when they asked him how to address the national cereals board crisis.
Tuesday June 18 2013

The reason, Mr Kigen said, was the nature and history of the case that has resulted in the imminent collapse of the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB).
The cereals board has been brought to its knees by Erad General Suppliers and Contractors, a firm it contracted in August 2004 to supply maize on an emergency basis.

When the matter was taken to the High Court, Mr Justice Leonard Njagi also ruled in favour of Erad. The judge was later declared unfit to hold office.

Members of the committee led by Eldas MP Adan Keynan appeared convinced that people within NCPB, the Judiciary, the EACC and the CID were keen to bankrupt the cereals board

So far I go to avoid laughing at myself, my nation's tragedy.

Egypt is far enough from my bed and an abstract show for academic interest only. Let us go there then.

It will turn out to be very complicated, the politics of food sufficiency. Egypt is more than interesting because it has tailor-made 'Malthusian narrative' of an exploding population, a dwindling water stream, a narrow ribbon valley where all the food has to be grown, and the same land being squandered in urban and rural real estate, and a pre-historical ruling class on top of a populace with a primitive religion.

Yet a closer look may reveal all that a false take.

GROWING MORE WHEAT IN EGYPT FOR BREAD

From ancient times this has been a key national obsession. Every epoch, every regime wrestling with the bread problem.
And so too came the short-lived turn of the Islamic Brotherhood under Mohammed Morsi. President elect now in death-row.

The plan was authored by this man

El-Gizawy, 64, is the head of the Agriculture Committee of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party.

Graduating in 1970 with a degree in agriculture, El-Gizawy moved up the academic ladder to eventually become a professor and dean of the Ain Sham University's Faculty of Agriculture.

The 64-year-old El-Gizawy is an accomplished academic, who won accolades including shields of excellence from Egypt's Ain Shams University, Italy's University of Palermo and a German university. In 1988, his doctoral thesis on orchards was selected as the country's best doctoral thesis.

El-Giazwy has filed a patent on “utilising extracts of natural plants in fighting pests and plant diseases and improving growth qualities of fruits.”

Some academics and others involved in the agriculture field have criticised his appointment, as he is a Brotherhood supporter.

Okay, whatever El-Gizawy supported, his plan was to once more make Egypt self-sufficient in Grain (for Bread) production and, progressively curtailing imports, later to re-emerge as grain exporter. A revolutionary aim that antagonised powerful forces near and far.

The administration of former president Mohammed Morsi suspended wheat imports in 2003, claiming that domestic production was sufficient to meet demands. At the time, former supply minister Bassem Ouda announced the country would rely upon the country’s domestic production.

However, after Morsi’s ouster from power in July 2013, the interim government reinstated the import policy, saying that the Islamist president had depended on “false and misleading” data regarding local rates of production.

But there is another story there.

When you import over 6M tonnes per year, it stretches the imagination a bit to accept an Engineer could make such a decision. It would mean Egypt had produced over 7m tonnes extra in one year! a simple walk or flight over the Nile delta would reveal that is nonsense. Bassem Ouda would have to be a total moron to believe this statistic of abundance in a few months, a miracle!

Before that, it is important to have an idea of just how the other side took take

Egypt's wheat problem: how Mursi jeopardized the bread supply
CAIRO | By Sarah McFarlane

The biggest mistake deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi made during his year in power was dramatically reducing wheat imports, according to Mohamed Abu Shadi, the country's new minister of supplies.
Lack of money and a quixotic attempt at making Egypt self-sufficient spurred the decline, say officials familiar with the matter. Mursi dreamt of making Egypt grow all its own wheat and allowed imported stocks to fall to precariously low levels. It hurt both the country's wheat stocks and Mursi's government.

With a quarter of Egypt's 84 million people living below the poverty line of $1.65 a day, millions depend on subsidized bread that sells for less than 1 U.S. cent per loaf. That supply relies on foreign wheat.@reuters

But did Morsi reduce wheat imports!? Intrigued, I have asking any Arab economist whose e-mail if freely available anywhere if Morsi would be crazy enough to REDUCE IMPORTS OF WHEAT IN EGYPT before HE HAD HIS OWN BUMPER HARVEST!

Did he think, really, that Allah grows wheat double time and in bumper harvest when the Islamic brotherhood is in power!? That the laws of plantology, climatology and agriculture were bendable to his will outside science?

A few specialists who bothered to correspond laughed at me. No, no Egyptian politician, however naive and stupid, can be that dumb and suicidal. He would never have been born in the first place! Bread means life in Egypt.

Just the idea alone –--of a move toward (unrealisable?) grain self-sufficiency, spooked the deep state still intact. It convinced this man was beyond reasonable! … control …. For the importers of wheat!

Continued.

[jakaswanga]

OF MIRACLES AND DAILY STAPLES

It is not that I love miracles, it is that I love puzzling out how they work. I love the tedious job of collecting hints, discerning the patterNs and jig-sawing out the sudoku puzzle of their political economy. I know very few economic miracles but, from the top of my head, I can mention the German 'wirtschaftswunder' and, Behold, that day ON THE MOUNT when Jesus on some five fish and five loaves, fed a multitude stomach full.

If I haven't written about them earlier, I will elsewhere. But suffice is to say it was thus a mouth-watering experience for me to gather the man I had accused of abdication, Muthamaki Kenyatta, not to mention his quixotic side-kick Pancha William Singh, had, with a few days, reduced the price of maize from ksh.160/2kg, to a pocket-friendly ksh90/2kg.

I consider that an economic miracle! So I checked out a few economists to find out what such a spectacular crash in prices is called in the market and, most importantly, explained. The world is so much full of over-priced goods there can never be enough price-crash miracles, meseems.

But having been around the block some, I tend to be a doubting Tom, even if it is Godson Jesus himself feeding 10000 on 10 loaves, and the multitude itself professing a full stomach. When I checked out the German economic miracle of Adenauer and co, I found a sordid tale of a slave-farms work ethic, but yes, without the extreme parasitism nor the mindless waste of public money our compradors so specialise in. The miracle lay in common sense, and common sense meant setting intelligent targets, and the organisation to meet them up time. Like growing 45 milion tonnes of maize per year would be a game-changer in Kenya!

For Uhuruto who built toilets in Kibera slums at prohibitive costs –--see Anne Waiguru's vouchers!---- to get maize from Mexico through the sea at super-sonic speeds was always going to be a fishy story.

Here is a good tip I found.
.

Billionaire millers who shipped maize to Mombasa unmasked

Wednesday May 17 2017

In Summary
The last time Holbud was mentioned in Kenya it was about a maize scandal.
Kitui Millers is associated with one of the wealthiest Mombasa families of Salim Taib with an empire straddling East Africa.
The other beneficiary was Mombasa Maize Millers.

By JOHN KAMAU

As many questions remain unanswered on the identity of the billionaire millers who brought in the cargo of maize, what is clear is that they have been here before – done that.
When the saga broke, the first name to be mentioned was that of Holbud (UK) Limited as the company that shipped the maize from Mexico.

The last time Holbud was mentioned in Kenya it was about a maize scandal.

That time, in 2004, National Cereals and Produce Board officials had sold maize from the Strategic Grain Reserve to Holbud at “uneconomical prices”, according to a report by the Inspectorate of State Corporations.

Holbud, then, was allocated one million bags — which it sold to Zimbabwe — after then-permanent secretary for Agriculture Shem Migot-Adholla ordered the sale “to offset NCPB’s debt to farmers”.

BUY MAIZE

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The report said Holbud had neither asked to buy the maize nor tendered for it.

Interestingly, earlier in 2002, the same firm had been allowed to import more than 16,000 tonnes of maize from Durban, South Africa, when the country faced a crisis similar to the one we are in today.

And now, questions are once again being raised about this company, whose consignment of 29,900 tonnes of maize arrived in Mombasa last week aboard the IVS Pinehurst.
Based in the UK, the company is run by Hasnain Roshanali Merali, David George Rowe, Mahmood Gulamhusein Khaku and Shaukat Akberali Merali.

But according to some court filings — regarding a Holbud ship, the Ya Mawlaya, which had an accident in the US — both Holbud and Hydrey (P) Limited are “related companies controlled by Roshan Merali”.

SHARE DIRECTORS

Thus, Hydrey (P) Limited is of significance. It is associated with Holbud and the two share directors.
While some government officials say Holbud was only a transporter of the cargo, it also named the importers as Kitui Flour Mills, Pembe Flour Mills and Hydrey (P) Limited, meaning that Holbud also brought cargo for its sister company.

Two years ago, Holbud was in the news when the parliamentary Committee on Agriculture was investigating how the company won a Sh6 billion fertiliser tender and the quality of fertiliser brought in.
On the other hand, Kitui Millers is associated with the Salim Taib family, one of the wealthiest families in Mombasa, with an empire straddling East Africa.
Mr Taib is also associated with Pembe Flour Mills, which also shared in the latest maize cargo.

MOMBASA MAIZE MILLERS

The family also owns a mill in Uganda and another in Tanga, Tanzania.
The other beneficiary was Mombasa Maize Millers.
Founded in 1978, it is associated with the family of Mombasa millionaire Mohammed Islam Ali, who established the company with his brother Ahmed Ali.

READ: CS Bett: Cheap ugali is here

Not to be left out is Embakasi-based Alpha Grain Millers, whose origin is Moyale, where it started as a distribution company in the 1970s. It is run by businessman Mohamednur Khalif and produces the Kifaru flour brand.
Initial government reports had said that the maize came from Mexico, but when questions were raised about how the IVS Pinehurst managed to sail 17,600 kilometres to Mombasa in just a few days, the story changed and officials said the cargo came from Durban, South Africa.

SOUTH AFRICAN ROUTE

Ships from North America with cargo destined for East Africa use the Mediterranean Sea route rather than the South African route, which is 18,200 kilometres long.

Perhaps the other question was what the ship was doing in Port Louis, Mauritius, on April 19, 2017, as identified on ship-tracking websites, before sailing to Durban and then to Mombasa.

READ: Maize stock reserves enough for half day

Some pundits have said that the IVS Pinehurst engages in the “blue economy” — a term that refers to ships with cargo in the high seas awaiting a chance to trade.
But the ministry said the maize cargo came from Mexican stocks stored in South Africa, thanks to another company called Inter Africa Grains PTY.
The company’s name was mentioned by Transport Principal Secretary Paul Mwangi, who said the maize was stored in South Africa and that was why the vessel took only five days to get to Mombasa after importers were given the nod to ship it in.

MAIZE SHORTAGE

“The white maize was imported to South Africa from Mexico last year when there was a shortage in that country.
"The excess amount was stored in Durban and sold to Kenya from Johannesburg,” Dr Mwangi said in Mombasa.
So what is Inter Africa Grains PTY, which sold the maize?
The firm is registered in Bermuda and is an affiliate of Seaboard Corporation, an American conglomerate based in Kansas that describes itself in its US Securities and Exchange Commission filings as a global agribusiness company.
In Kenya, it owns a 35 per cent stake in Unga Limited and has offices in Mombasa.

LOW PROFILE

US newspapers say its CEO, Steve Bresky, keeps a low profile and has never been interviewed by any media outlet, despite running a global network of flour mills and fruit and vegetable operations.
In a recent profile of Seaboard in the Kansas City Business Journal, the Fortune 500 establishment is described as “the silent giant of the Kansas City business scene”.
“The most interesting thing about Seaboard is how diverse and global they are, how they’re headquartered here, yet they are so unrecognised,” David Gibson, a fourth-generation wheat trader, told the newspaper.
It is not clear whether this is the same company that has shipped another cargo of maize aboard the

Interlink Priority, which is expected to arrive in Mombasa with 37,050 tonnes of the grain.
Seaboard owns Unga millers in Uganda and various other milling concerns.

www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/beginner-guide-how-manufacture-national-food-crisis/440808-3934320-2go3j5/index.html

And so it is that when, a week ago, the government proclaimed very loudly that maize from Mexico had arrived at the port of Mombasa, Kenyans quickly established that the IVS Pinehurst, the ship carrying the maize, had sailed from Durban a few days earlier. All one needed to do to confirm this as was log on to one of many ship-tracking websites. As I write, the ship is headed to Richards Bay in South Africa, where it is expected to dock on Monday at 22.30, having left Mombasa at 21 minutes past midnight on Thursday.
The truth about this particular maize shipment is another one of the Jubilee administration’s rackets that we may never unravel. Whatever the truth, the fiasco is deeply disturbing.

So now I must munch my cheap ugali and not ask questions!? Anyway what is the point of asking questions whose answers we know!?
It is to prepare us for the fall. When you try walking on water like Jesus reportedly did, it is nice to have plan B. In case you can't swim.

But ever since I met this Nigerian lady I have ceased to be worried. She said: 'I don't know any sensible Nigerians who think they have a government. And those who think there is one only expect one thing from that monster, trouble! In the planning of my life there is no such thing as a Nigerian government contribution except on the entry TROUBLE!'

Dam-n I always wondered how come Nigerians are reportedly among the happiest people on Earth! Now I know! I ask Kenyans to take note! Some bills are out there coming calling. Even miracles must be paid for these days!

Over to you Ruto! More miracles please!

[jakaswanga]

bringing down the price of a staple

enriching wealthy importers

By Moses Michira | Updated Thu, May 25th 2017

John Otieno who sells maize and owns a business of poshomill at work where he sells a kilo of maize for seventy shillings and mills for another ten shilling at his business premises in kibera Kenya is paying nearly three times the current price of maize in South Africa, pointing to huge margins for traders but huge costs to the taxpayer.

The removal of duty on imported maize only helped to compound the profits raked in by the few wealthy traders who have the financial muscle to engage in large-scale imports. Yesterday's average selling prices in South African markets were about Sh14,000 (SA Rand 1,750) per ton, or Sh1,360 per 90kg bag of white maize, market data at closing indicated.

An ongoing State-funded subsidy plan has also assured the importers of a ready market for their cheap maize, and at a guaranteed price of at least Sh3,600 per bag. Already, Sh6.5 billion has been allocated to pay importers as the country pays the price for poor planning ahead of the crisis that sent flour prices through the roof in recent days. "We shall pay Sh3,600 per bag for all maize before selling it to millers at Sh2,300," said Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Willy Bett after launching the subsidy plan last week.

ALSO READ: Government badly mishandled the unga subsidy issue

In the proposed purchase price from the State, millers will pay an equivalent of Sh25,500 per metric ton – which is still lower than the landed price of maize from South Africa. Estimates for shipping costs indicate that a vessel similar to IVS Pinehurst, the ship that delivered the 29,900 metric tonnes of maize imported from South Africa, would charge about Sh33 million for the work. Brokerage firm Danil Ostapenko, who works for an international freight brokerage firm known as Searates, gave The Standard a quote of $330,000 (Sh33 million) for a 30,000-ton consignment from Durban to Mombasa. That is roughly equal to Sh1 for every kilo, or Sh100 for a 90kg bag. Add the minimal cost of clearing and handling costs, and importers could have spent a maximum of Sh150 to move a bag of maize from warehouses at the Durban Port to a storage facility in Mombasa. A breakdown of the supply chain of the imported maize from the source markets indicates that the traders are guaranteed a profit of Sh2,000 per bag.

Read more at: www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/article/2001241015/kenya-pays-three-times-for-sa-maize-enriching-wealthy-importers

Subsidised Profit or a rip-off! how cheap is the maize really!? Don Quixtoe and Pancha! or do we ask the former head of macro-economics at the CBK, Rotich!?

(how did wheat-flour importation work in Mubarak's Egypt? see tales from explaining how the first family of Egypt garnered a 90 billion dollar fortune in 20 years! and the line Mohammed Morsi crossed on the politics of wheat-flour importation!)