At the centre of the high-stakes game is the speed with which National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani moved to disband the Strategic Food Reserve Trust Fund (SFRTF) without reference to the National Assembly.
However, on April 14, Mr Yatani published in the Kenya Gazette the notice of revocation of the Public Finance Management (Strategic Food Reserve Trust Fund) Regulations, 2015.
The Fund would have been the one to take charge of the emergency importation of maize to avert a possible food crisis in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
On April 20, with the Fund out of the way, Mr Yatani published another gazette notice on importation of maize at a concessional rate “in consequence of the declaration of coronavirus as a formidable epidemic disease in Kenya”.
Curiously though, instead of the start and end date for importation, the new gazette notice only gives the deadline of July 31 and no start date, which could open the way for mischief as any maize in the country could be considered to have been imported under the concessional rates.
