Legislators seeks to hold liable the company that supplied bags for fake fertilizer before the skip the hook
Supreme Packaging company managing partners found themselves in a receiving end after they failed to justify entry of fake fertilizer
The Members of Parliament have today put to task the company whose bags were found to contain fake fertiliser sold to farmers through National Cereal and Produce Board (NCPB)
Supreme Packaging LLP Company appearing before the National Assembly Committee on Agriculture and Livestock has been hard-pressed to explain how bags bearing it’s logo and artwork ended up containing fake fertiliser that made its way to farmers across the country.
Under the chairmanship of Tigania West MP John Mutunga, legislators sought to know why the company had produced excess bags for packaging fertiliser after it emerged that KELS Chemicals company- which is the manufacturer of the fertiliser in question- told the committee that it distributed 69,670 bags against 68,126 bags which Supreme packaging company claimed to have produced.
The legislators raised concern over the extra 1,544 bags that were used to package fake fertiliser and sought to hold the company on it’s solely responsibility
Soy MP David Kiplagat sought clarity on the quality of the bags produced and whether the packaging company had acquired the necessary certifications from the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs).
Supreme Packaging Managing Partner Ashish Navinchandra Shah and the operations manager Samson Kechukah, however, absolved themselves from blame, claiming that it could not account for the excess bags.
“We are not in a position to account for any extra bags. We can only talk about what we produced. We do not know where they (KELS chemicals) got the extra bags from,” said Navichandra.
He explained that when KELS approached Supreme packaging for the production of the bags, they manufactured “laminated” bags which were added an extra layer to ensure the contents do not absorb moisture during storage.
“As it stands, we only supplied the bags to KELS chemicals under the subsidy programme…we however do produce bags for other companies not on the subsidy programme,” said Navichandra.
On his part, the Operations Manager, Samson Kechulah, said they were demanded by Kel Chemicals to include the name of the Mems as their distributor in their branding but there were no sufficient details why they should included their names
“Our agent was texted by Mr Patel that they wanted some modification to include the name of Mems as their distributor but that matter died natural death since both parties couldn’t produce details over the same,” Kechulah told the committee investigating why the company was mentioned
According to Mr Kechulah, their company was contracted to supply 85,000 pieces of branded NPK- 1026-10 bags for Kel Chemicals that was manufacturing the fertilizer but they were stopped at 68,126 bags, leaving a balance of 16,874
But as per the Kel Chemicals submissions, Supreme Packaging company supplied 69,670 bags, something that, latter said, the manufacturer, might have received other bags from other suppliers, stating theirs were accurately recorded
Earlier, Kenya Bureau of Standards, alleged that the bags supplied by Supreme Packaging LLP did not meet the standards of quality mark accusing them of also supplying fake fertilizer
Wajir West legislator sought to know why the bags in circulation with fake fertilizer were supplied by supreme packaging without their knowledge
“Did you undertake due diligence to find out what was contained in the bags,” Wajir West MP Farah Yusuf sought
Borabu MP Patrick Osero alluded of possible collision between the two companies to steal money from the National Cereals and Produce Board NCPB
“The crux of the matter is that if there were any extra bags that were filled with soil and other materials and distributed to farmers as fertiliser then we will apportion the blame on you,” said Osero.