Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya said on Monday that the government had considered the views of millers, who had requested a two-month window for imports.

The low duty importation window was to run up to May 30, allowing local millers to ship in two million bags of each of white and yellow maize.

Chief executive officer of Cereal Grain Growers (CGA) Anthony Kioko said the imports should be managed in a way that it will not interfere with the expected harvest of the short rain crops in the South Rift, which normally begins in June on a low scale and goes all the way to August.

"There is a likelihood of imports overlapping with the short rain crop from South Rift as importation window might spread all the way to August and this will impact negatively on farmers," said Mr Kioko.

This is a reminiscence to what happened in 2017 when a late decision on imports was reached, a move that saw more maize than what was required imported into the country, resulting to lower prices of the staple in 2018, with a bag of 90 kilos hitting a low of Sh800 at farm gate, from a high of Sh32 the previous year.