Gorogoro at all time high: 'Cornmen' and maize from Mexico

This is the tragedy that befalls a nation whose citizens vote in dealers instead of leaders! ‘Cornmen’ hoard maize, creating an artificial shortfall then unga prices spike to the price of gold.

They then ‘import’ the locally produced maize from Mexico after import duty has been waived on the commodity, making a hefty profit.

In Soy, a 2KG tin of maize popularly known as ‘gorogoro’ is at an all time high of Sh150. This maize was produced locally, in the last season.

 Why is the price so high? It is high because during the harvest season, we loaded maize into 90kg gunias, mounted it on a pikipiki, took it to the market and sold it for as low as Sh2,000 a bag, to someone who kept it for three months, and is now selling it back to us at Sh6,000 a bag.

We are now buying our own maize in half of a ‘gorogoro’ a new discovery called “shell B” (I cannot tell what inspired the new name) and carrying it back to our homes in tiny black polythene bags.

The motivation behind us selling the maize in December was to get money to buy unga ngano and nguo ya Christmas. In essence someone took advantage of our lack of foresight to make a kill.

We are our own worst enemies. Farmers are selling milk at Sh45 per litre.

A trader buys, passes by the river and dilutes it with water then sells a liter at Sh90. In this case, the government doesn’t fit anywhere, its just a country getting consumed by it’s own greed. The consumers of this adulterated milk are complaining that even if it has to be diluted, then the water should be clean and if possible boiled to avoid diseases.

Back to the hoarding government, it reminds me of story from a lower primary story book. An old man who owned a Volkswagen beetle, went to town to buy one headlamp, to replace a missing one. The wajuaji mechanics took advantage of his ushamba and told him to wait, as they fetched one for him.

As he waited, the mechanics went to his car, which he had packed a distance away, and removed the remaining headlamp, which they took and sold to him. The old man never suspected he was buying his own property. When he went to fix it, he was shocked to find the remaining headlight missing.

He fixed the new one and decided it was better to buy another headlamp than go home with the same problem. He went to the mechanics who did what they had done earlier. When the old man returned to his jalopy with a ‘new’ headlamp he found the one he had just fixed missing. He sniffed a fat rat and drove away very fast!

This is Kenya, a country where when you take tea in a hotel you have to be careful because the person seated next to you can steal the sugar from your tea. The maize being imported is like the mzee’s VW headlamp.

They are from our Strategic Grain Reserve and only being moved around in circles to enable some Kenyans join the billionaire’s club.

Because we touched on mechanics, let’s wind with a funny story. some years back, an old man drove to Soy town to repair his vehicle. He met a mechanic called Rocken (now deceased) who checked the car and upon realising the problem was just a small thing, probably a loose nut somewhere, told the old man “Hii gari haina diambo,” a youthful way of saying the car doesn’t have any problem.

Being an old man who doesn’t understand sheng, the car owner asked “hiyo ni pesa ngapi?” and that is when Rocken decided that one diambo should go for Sh2,000.

Just like the ‘cornmen’ of Kenya, my good friend Rocken, also got an opportunity to be Kenyan, which he did not squander. He sold the old man an imagery spare part!