KDRTV NEWS – Nairobi: What was meant to be a lifeline for Kenya’s struggling farmers has turned into a profit-making scheme for unscrupulous private entities, casting a shadow over the government’s fertilizer subsidy program. Emerging revelations indicate that subsidized urea fertilizer, intended to boost local food production and ease the burden on smallholder farmers, is being systematically diverted and sold for profit in neighboring countries.
Multiple sources familiar with the scheme allege that private firms — notably Export Trading Group (ETG) — have found a way to manipulate the government’s Mezzanine fertilizer distribution system. This manipulation has seen tons of taxpayer-funded fertilizer disappear from National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) depots, only to reappear across the border at inflated market prices.
A whistleblower, speaking under strict anonymity, shed light on how the scheme unfolds:
“ETG imports about 1,000 bags of Falcon Urea fertilizer to the Port of Mombasa at roughly KSh 4,500 per bag. The government then purchases 500 bags at the same price and subsidizes them down to around KSh 2,500 per bag to make it affordable for Kenyan farmers.”
However, the subsidized bags do not follow a transparent and traceable route. Once the government-subsidized consignment is handed over to ETG’s Mezzanine system for centralized distribution, a questionable switch begins. Trucks are dispatched to various NCPB depots — Meru, Ziwa, and others — as expected. But another 500 bags remain in ETG’s private warehouses.
These remaining bags, the whistleblower claims, are later uploaded into the Ministry’s Mezzanine system and deceptively marked as subsidized. This second batch is quietly transported — not to Kenyan farmers — but across the border to Uganda, using Stabex International Logistics, a firm reportedly tied to powerful political interests.
In Uganda, the same bag of urea fetches KSh 5,500 at market price. That’s a tidy profit of around KSh 3,000 per bag — with KSh 2,000 of it being the subsidy meant to support Kenyan agriculture. In short, while Kenyan taxpayers foot the bill, private players make millions exploiting a loophole in the system.
This scandal points to systemic corruption within both the public and private sectors. Farmers have raised red flags for months: inconsistent deliveries, unexplained price variations, and suspicious shortages during peak planting seasons.
“This isn’t just a scam. It’s economic sabotage,” said an agriculture lobbyist who has tracked fertilizer distribution patterns over the last year. “By depriving farmers of fertilizer, we’re undermining food security and sabotaging the very backbone of rural livelihoods.”
Public outrage is mounting. Critics are calling on Agriculture CS Mithika Linturi and other top officials to explain how such a blatant theft of public resources has gone unchecked. Many are also demanding a forensic audit of the fertilizer subsidy program and a full overhaul of the Mezzanine distribution system, which seems to be operating with minimal transparency or accountability.
The implications are grave. At a time when Kenya faces mounting food insecurity, irregular rainfall, and soaring input costs, siphoning off subsidized farm inputs is not just unethical — it’s lethal.
As investigations continue, one thing remains clear: unless urgent action is taken, Kenya’s food sovereignty will remain at the mercy of profit-driven cartels exploiting every loophole they can find — with government silence enabling their actions.
