Millers who agreed to the government’s unga subsidy program three weeks to the August General Elections have been left with a Sh. 1.1 billion debt in their hands.

A report that appeared in a local daily newspaper on Friday showed that by the time the millers are yet to be paid bills amounting to Sh. 1.1 billion nearly two weeks after subsidy program was officially ended.

The report said that two weeks ago, the millers had delivered their invoices expecting to be paid within five days as per the contracts they signed with the government.

“About 45 millers are yet to be paid. In total, about Sh. 1.1 billion worth of invoices delivered by millers have not been paid,” the report quoted a source. It added that Sh. 4 billion that had been “credited to an escrow account that had been opened to run the subsidy was already depleted.”

“Most of the millers fear the government may refuse to pay them, as it did in 2017, when more than Sh. 500 million that was owed to some millers was not settled until this year, when the government needed them,” the report said.

The report quoted a small scale miller who enrolled in the subsidy program saying that he had gotten into debts to keep operating.

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The miller, Robert Kimani of Kiwa Millers, said that  his business is owed Sh. 20 million by the government and has had to run to banks to get credit to keep its machines running.

“We were told that the money was depleted and that the ministry wanted to do all the calculations first before requesting for additional funds to clear all invoices,” he said in the report.