President William Ruto has disclosed that by next year, Kenya will not be importing a single grain of maize.
Speaking on Tuesday, May 21, while meeting Kenyan diaspora community in the US, the Head of State intimated that he had made a decision to invest in production.
"We spend Ksh500 billion every year to import food items to Kenya. We import maize, wheat, edible oil, rice and other commodities and I have made the decision that we are going to invest in production. By next year, we will not be importing a grain of maize," the president remarked.
President Ruto further maintained that in the next five years, the country will not be importing edible oil.
"In five years, I want to make sure that sunflower, soya, cannola, and palm oil are all grown in Kenya and we don't have to import again. Already last year, we started the journey on soya and sunflower. We are on course on cannola. We have already gotten the seeds," the president stated.
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The Head of State asserted that the move was going to help the country reduce the foreign exchange it uses to import food which it can produce locally.
On the issue of fake fertilizers, the president said that every farmer who purchased fertilizer that was sub-standard will be compensated.
"We asked every farmer who bought fertilizer that was finally identified not to be good to register and 7,000 farmers registered. And already we have started compensation for every farmer. You will get equivalent fertilizer without having to pay," President Ruto stated.
The Head of State is in the US for a three-day state visit.
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