Ksh 50 Million Used To Clear Bushes in Galana Kulalu Project

It has emerged that 580 million shillings were used to clear bushes on the 10,000-acre farm at Galana Kulalu irrigation project, the Senate Committee on Agriculture heard.

The government is said to have used 40,000 shillings per acre to remove stumps at the site and another 68,000 shillings per acre for the leveling of the land.

Part of government money is also said to have been used by the National Irrigation Board to clear land owned by a private investor further showing how officials in government misuse the taxpayers’ money.

So far, the taxpayer has used 7.2 billion shillings on Galana Kulalu with nothing tangible having come out of it. In 2018, the government is said to have harvested maize worth 50 million shillings with the officials insisting that the government “got value for its money.”

The government had plans to construct a milling plant at Galana Kulalu that would see the price of Unga dropping from the current average of 130 shillings per 2-kilogram packet to between 50 and 60 shillings.

The irrigation infrastructure is 85 percent complete but there are fears that the project might never see the light of the day after the government cut the budget from 14 billion shillings to 7.2 billion shillings.

The project is being funded by a loan acquired from the government of Israel and the Attorney General has warned that the termination of the project might jeopardize the loan.

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Kenya’s food security

Kenya’s food security is at risk following the delay in long rains that have led to the majority of farmers failing to plant food crops especially maize.

The government has, over the years, been urged to embrace irrigation through the construction of dams. Funds set aside for the construction of the dams, however, have been disappearing through thin air. At the moment, 21 billion shillings set aside for the construction of Kimwarer and Aror dams cannot be accounted for.