Thursday, May 16, 2024 - President William Ruto has lost trust in Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi.
This is after he put Deputy
President Rigathi Gachagua in charge of the Agriculture docket just after an
impeachment motion against Linturi flopped.
Ruto asked Gachagua to oversee
the troubled Ministry of Agriculture.
According to Ruto, even though
there was a minister for Agriculture, the sector was so important that it
needed Gachagua's support.
"The Ministry of
Agriculture is an important sector in our country. That is why being in charge
by the minister, I have asked my deputy also to have his eyes on the sector,”
he stated.
The President noted that the
sector contributes close to KSh 200 billion annually, with farmers more than
600,050 across the country, and many Kenyans who get their source of livelihood
from agriculture.
He further added that the
ministry is crucial to the Kenya Kwanza government which has a fertilizer
subsidy programme that provides fertilizer to farmers at an affordable rate.
"We have centred our focus on sectors that are directly affected by the Ministry of Agriculture.
"The sector brings about KSh200 billion every year, it includes more than 600,050 farmers and benefits more than 4.5 million people.
"It is for this reason that I
attach the importance of the sector, not only to the nation but also to this
administration," he added.
The embattled Agriculture CS was
linked to the distribution of fake fertilizer to farmers in the country.
Linturi had earlier refuted
claims of the existence of fake fertilizer. According to him, the fertilizer was not
fake, but short of the required standards in Kenya.
The Kenyan DAILY POST
0 Comments