Governors blame maize shortage on poor coordination between Govt and counties

Peter Munya has served as the Council of Governors Chairman for two years. (Photo: Peter Muthomi, Standard)

Governors have blamed the biting shortage of maize in the Kenya on poor coordination between the national government and counties.

The outgoing Council of Governors chairman Peter Munya also said Kenya’s overreliance on rain-fed agriculture has a hand to play in the shortage of the staple food that has now engulfed the country.

“Whereas the national government is supposed to be in charge of the overall vision on how we drive agriculture and research and long term planning, we have not seen a very good coordination on how we can drive a national agenda and a national vision in agriculture,” said Munya during Council of Governors meeting in Nairobi.

He said the performance of the country in terms of agricultural production had significantly improved since the governors took office, with the production of sugar, coffee, rice and maize making significant increase thanks to the impetus given to it by devolution.

He said the National government and counties need to lay a clear strategy on the best way to move the country forward in terms of increasing agricultural production.

“The soaring prices of unga is an indication that there is a serious problem,” he said.