Commodities Fund tells court it is still developing miraa fund modalities

The Commodities Fund has told a Meru court it is yet to finalise modalities on how a state capitalised Sh180 million revolving fund will be channeled to miraa farmers.

Appearing at a hearing on August 20 in which a traders lobby sued the government over the disbursement of the kitty, the Fund told Justice Francis Gikonyo that the money had been transferred to its accounts at the tail end of the 2019-20 financial year.

Fund Managing Trustee Nancy Cheruyoit told the court none of its officers have been threatened, harassed or ordered to transfer the amount to a private entity and that the law and formal public and stakeholder consultation will guide the final modalities of disbursement.

Her affidavit was in response to a suit filed by three officials of the Nyambene Miraa Traders Association (Nyamita) who have named the Head of Public Service and Chief of Staff, cabinet secretaries for Finance and Agriculture and the the Attorney General as respondents in a case at the High Court in Meru.

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The lobby represented by lawyer Lucas Kobia claimed that the Ministry of Co-operatives officers are using public funds to help Mwenge Sacco recruit members thus breaching the Public Officers Ethics and Code of Conduct.

"We are apprehensive that public funds meant for a well structured scheme may be lost if put in an unknown private entity picked without public participation," claimed the applicants Kimathi Munjuri, Jacob Miriti and Naftali Kathurima.

They also claimed that the respondents are in breach of court orders issued in 2017 providing for the lobby and Meru county government's involvement in projects involving the sector.

The three want the government technocrats stopped from disbursing the miraa revolving fund through the Mwenge Sacco claiming it was a briefcase entity controlled by individuals linked to the Party of National Unity (PNU).

Justice Gikonyo has ordered that the matter be mentioned on November 5 to confirm compliance with a consent signed between the parties in 2017 which required adequate consultations involving Nyamita, the Meru county government and all other stakeholders with the government before implementation of projects in the miraa subsector.