Mwea Member of Parliament (MP) Mary Maingi has made a passionate appeal to the national government to intervene on behalf of rice farmers in her constituency, calling for urgent debt relief, increased investment in irrigation infrastructure, and the prompt purchase of surplus rice stocks by a state trading agency.

Speaking during President William Ruto’s visit to Kirinyaga County on Monday, June 22, 2026, Maingi laid out a series of pressing concerns affecting thousands of farmers in Mwea, Kenya’s largest rice-producing constituency, and urged the Head of State to take immediate action to ease their financial burden and strengthen agricultural productivity in the area.

At the heart of Maingi’s appeal was a request for the cancellation of a Ksh120 million debt owed by Mwea farmers to the National Irrigation Authority (NIA), an obligation that has reportedly been accumulating since 2017.

“I also want to ask you to waive a bill of the National Irrigation Authority owed by Mwea rice farmers; it’s about Ksh120 million,” Maingi told the president.

The legislator argued that the lingering liability has become a growing obstacle for farmers who are already grappling with the high costs of rice production and delayed payments for their produce.

Shortage of irrigation machinery

The MP raised additional concerns about the National Irrigation Authority’s limited capacity to support farming operations in Mwea, citing a critical shortage of machinery as a key impediment.

Maingi called on the government to allocate funds for the acquisition of equipment that would enable NIA to construct and maintain farm access roads and improve irrigation management across the constituency.

Farm roads

Lack of proper maintenance of on-farm roads has been contributing to the high cost of rice production, as farmers have to dig deeper into their pockets to facilitate the transport of their produce from the farms to the market, hence counting more losses.

The MP says that once constructed, the roads would ease financial burdens for farmers.

“National Irrigation Authority, they do not have enough machinery. Kindly, just allocate some money for a few machines, and we will be able to do a few things with the on-farm roads to ease transport of rice from the field to the market,” she said.

One of the most urgent issues raised by the lawmaker was the large volume of unsold rice stocks piling up in storage facilities within the constituency.

Maingi revealed that while the Kenya National Trading Corporation (KNTC) had recently collected 6,000 bags of rice from Mwea farmers, approximately 40,000 bags still remain piled up in the stores.

She appealed directly to the president to direct KNTC to collect the remaining stock without further delay and ensure that farmers receive timely payment.

“We had KNTC come for rice. They came for 6,000 bags. We have a balance of 40,000 bags in our stores. We ask them to come for it and pay for it,” Maingi said.

The MP warned that prolonged delays in purchasing and payment continue to strain farmers financially and ripple negatively through the local economy.