The Council of Governors (CoG) demanded yesterday that  the government exempts fertiliser products from Value Added Tax as a short-term solution to the skyrocketing prices of the commodity.

CoG chairman Martin Wambora said at a press conference in Nairobi that the government should also consider subsidising farm inputs by 50 per cent.

Farm input

“We note with concern that in the last one month, fertiliser prices in Kenya have skyrocketed with a 50kg bag currently retailing at over Sh7,000. The high cost of this critical farm input is not only a burden on the farmer but the consumers to whom the burden is transferred,” said Wambora.

“CoG urges the Ministry of Agriculture to apply government subsidy and lift this burden from Kenyans. We propose that the Ministry exempts fertiliser products from VAT and Import duty or subsidize farm inputs by 50 per cent in order to lower prices. This is the only immediate and short term solution to the ongoing problem in the sector,” he added.

Wambora also condemned delayed disbursements of funds to counties saying the National Treasury had only disbursed 54 per cent of the total  allocation. 

This translates to Sh199.882 billion out of Sh370 billion allocated to counties for the Financial Year 2021/22.

“The total funds owed to counties as of today is a colossal amount of Sh75.77 billion. The continued delay in disbursement of these funds has interrupted service delivery in counties,” he said.

On conditional grants for counties, he said that with only four months left to the end of the Financial Year, counties were yet to access the funds due to the delay in passing the County Governments Grants Bill.

“The Council is disappointed that the mediation process has not commenced despite constitution of the mediation committee. 

“Treasury should expedite the release of the outstanding County equitable share of revenue without any further delays while the Senate and National Assembly should fast-track consideration of the Grants Bill,” Wambora said.

Drought situation

On the drought situation, Wambora said limited resources had been set aside to complement efforts of county governments to mitigate the effects of drought especially in the Arid and Semi Arid Lands counties.

Currently, more than 3.1 million people are food insecure in 24 counties, with over 360,000 people in the emergency phase.

“In order to contain the consequences of loss of livestock, we urge the Ministry of Public Service, Gender, Senior Citizens and Special Programmes, as well as development partners, to support counties to ensure provision of timely and humanitarian livestock assistance and the required drought response action,” he said.