I have been watching the news and today I am looking at a pic of cattle carcasses that were bought by KMC in the Govt cattle offtake scheme.

Does it make sense to the economy when a govt buys cattle that is dying then transport it to Nairobi to obviously bury it.

Another thing that does not make sense is when a free market depends on the Govt purchasing power to dictate its future i.e why should a Maize farmer solely depend on the govt to bail him out once he harvest his crop.Cant these farmers look for other ways of making money from their harvest.

In my opinion, The Govt takes most of the responsibility when it comes to failures while other stakeholders go scot free.

I believe that they do get do get other ways. That is why we have the current maize shortage. It is said that most of the maize harvested last season ended up in Southern Sudan.
The main concern is, why should the government import maize at far much higher prices than what the farmers are asking for? This way we will have some grain reserves, other than waiting for maize to be sold outside the country and then start the blame game.

How much is imported maize per 90kg bag? You might even find that imported maize might be cheaper than Kenyan-grown maize as is the case with imported sugar.

IMHO,I think the govt does not import maize, it waives the importation tax once locally produce maize become too costly such that the millers end up raising the prices of their produce.

I think the problem with this country is lack of a proper distribution network such that farmers have no power or know how of how to exploit the available channels of distribution to get full value for their products.

Building strategic storage facilities for consumer goods that are produced in plenty I think is a waste of resources

cooperative movement is the only vehicle that can help farmers in North Eastern and Riftvalley get value for their produce. This cooperatives can have a higher bargaining power than individual farmers.

Selah what would happen if the central bank did not know how much money was in circulation in the economy, or did not maintain a strategic reserve of the currencies that an import economy of ours relies on such as USD and Euro? A strategic reserve bank does not absorb all the excess food, what it does is to create buffer stocks. This inevitably stabilises prices for both buyer and seller.

Improvement of distribution is a quick win and can be implemented at low cost, but creation of the food banks is the long term solution. A sort of equilibrium must be maintained.

On to other matters, most Kenyans who are arguing that the Turkana are lazy and could have done better on their own are ill informed and I have the benefit of experience having grown up in one of the most neglected areas of the country.

We take into granted simple things like the oxygen we breathe every day. Those who were born around the Railway line tend to think that they did anything special to achieve what they have today. The truth is that a biological accident placed them where they are and if they were born say in Turkana or Mandera, they would not be what they are today.