New Twist as Businessman Implicates Top Gov’t Officials, Claims Sh1.1 Billion Defrauded in Fertilizer Scam

New details have emerged in the ongoing probe into the fake fertilizer scam probe.

This was after an official involved in the supply of the product named top officials at State House and the Ministry of Agriculture.

He also implicated officials at the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) and the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB).

Appearing before the National Assembly’s Agriculture Committee, Kel Chemicals Chief Operating Officer (COO) Devesh Patel talked of a high-stakes meeting he allegedly attended by the senior public servants, moments before his unprecedented arrest, alleging that he was arrested and detained at a police station after the meeting ended prematurely.

The meeting was meant to force him to supply fertilizer worth Sh300 million.

Patel told the MPs he finally imported the fertilizer and supplied the same to NCPB without documents.

He said he was paid his Sh300 million but NCPB was later billed with Sh1.4 billion which they paid to unknown people.

“I later learned the money was paid so I took my expenses of Sh300 million but I do not know who took the balance,” he told the committee.

The MPs were shocked the scam was hatched by top government officials.

Journalists were later asked to leave for the businessman to talk in camera.

He said he was taken to a meeting to meet top KeBS, ministry of agriculture and State House officials who forced him to do the business.

“While giving my statement, one official at KeBS kept interrupting me saying that I am making substandard fertilizer. The official threatened they will close our factories and told another official at State House to punish us,” he said.

“Thereafter, the State House official did not finish listening to me and instead asked some police to arrest me together with Collins Ng’etich and take me to the DCI headquarters in along Kiambu Road.”

“I was arrested without being informed of the reasons for my arrest, no representation from counsel and I wrote my statement while under duress. I was later released on a Sh100,000 police bond.”

Patel said that he was coerced into writing a letter admitting that they had produced and distributed fake fertilizer while in police detention.

“I was forced to write a letter indicating that I had recalled the batches of fertilizer,” he said.

The damning allegations from Patel come barely a week after Kel Chemical’s factory was inspected and later closed by Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi over alleged involvement in the fake fertilizer scandal.

The MPs plan to ask President William Ruto to personally take action on some of his officials who were involved in the scam.

Police are also investigating the scam. Some of the officials have revealed there is interference in the probe.

They say some officials want some directors be charged over the issue even if they were not involved in the saga.