Newly sworn-in Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe was on Friday, January 17, 2025, thrown into the deep end immediately after taking over the docket from his predecessor Andrew Karanja.
After subscribing to the oath of office and pledging his willingness to support Kenya Kwanza’s development agenda, President William Ruto informed CS Kagwe that his first assignment was sorting out the issue regarding the tea sector.
The Head of State stated that tea worth millions of shillings was stuck at the Port of Mombasa and directed Kagwe to address the matter immediately.
He added that he expected CS Kagwe to fix the issue once and for all since farmers were playing their part and the government needed to assure them of timely earnings.
“In tea, just to inform you have a first call this afternoon. We have tea that is stuck in Mombasa and yesterday I was talking to your team in the Ministry of Agriculture, you need to find out what are the issues causing the clog-up in Mombasa,” Ruto stated.
“The good news around that space is that we enhanced our earnings from tea last year from Ksh180 billion to Ksh210 billion and farmers are expecting to look at the future and do better,” he further added.
Other assignments
Besides addressing the tea issue, the Head of State indicated that CS Kagwe had a lot on his docket that needed urgent intervention.
With the planting season fast approaching, Ruto directed Kagwe to take a bold and front step in ensuring that all farmers receive approved fertiliser. This was mainly due to the fake fertiliser scandal that rocked his administration which saw an impeachment motion filed against the then CS Mithika Linturi.
The controversial livestock vaccination program also featured in the lists of assignments handed over to CS Kagwe. Ruto asked him to accelerate it and ensure farmers benefit from the initiative.
During the vetting session, Kagwe promised not to make the livestock vaccination programme mandatory, instead, he vowed to engage the farmers and educate them on the importance of subjecting their animals to the jab.
“You (Mutahi Kagwe) have what it takes to persuade farmers to take on the vaccination; you have done it before. It is however a voluntary exercise and no one will be forced to do anything,” Ruto stated.
Ruto also gave out specific assignments to new ICT CS William Kabogo and his Trade counterpart Lee Kinyanjui. He asked them to serve with passion and strive to eradicate corruption in their dockets.
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