Two sisters and a brother were paid over half billion by the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB). This has been revealed by the Standard Media Group, which says it has documents showing the payments.
According to The Standard, the siblings are Celestine Chepchirchir, Caroline Chepchumba and Rodney Kimutai.
Apparently, the three were paid Sh. 333 million, Sh. 96 million and Sh. 2.2 million, respectively.
The Standard reports that the three had delivered maize worth Sh. 637 million to the NCPB depots in Eldoret and Kisumu and had already been paid Sh. 431 milllion.
Celestine Chepchirchir, Caroline Chepchumba and Rodney Kimutai were paid Sh. 333 million, Sh. 96 million and Sh. 2.2 million.
However, these three siblings are not farmers who sold their to the NCPB but traders.
They are among tens of fake farmers paid Sh. 5.2 billion and who are still owed another Sh. 3.4 billion in what is being termed as another loading major maize scam.
The Standard reported:
Victoria Rotich, the mother of Chepchirchir, Chepchumba and Kimutai, said they are genuine farmers and traders who have been engaged in the business for many years.
“I started maize business in 1982, but even then I was farming. I have built our profiles for three decades, and I’m open for any questions on the current matter because I have nothing to hide,” said Mrs Rotich.
She said she was getting old and was inducting her children to the business.
“I delivered part of the maize from the 1,600 acres I tilled last year, then as a businessperson, farmers who had lined up for weeks as they waited to get to the stores approached me and I started buying their maize because many needed money for school fees and other commitments,” she said.
Rotich says the profile she had built allowed her to acquire Sh. 110 million from Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) and another Sh. 30 million from Oriental Bank, which she used to acquire maize from the farmers. She says she then delivered the maize to the depots through her children.
“The government should investigate those who brought hundreds of lorries with maize whose origins were not clear. We know each other here as farmers and traders, they should investigate other people,” she said.
Kimutai, one of her children, said he harvested part of the 9,000 bags he supplied to the NCPB from 500 acres of land he had leased in Uasin Gishu County.