Nairobi – Kenyan government will spend about $60 million to subsidise maize to make the staple food affordable to citizens, President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Wednesday.

Speaking at this year’s Nairobi International Trade Fair in Nairobi, Kenyatta said the money will be used to buy all the maize offered for sale by farmers this season under the government’s Strategic Food Reserve programme to boost food security and sustain affordable price for maize flour.

"For this purpose, we have programmed to spend Ksh6 billion (about $60 million),” Kenyatta said, adding that the government has cut the price of planting fertiliser to $12 per 50-kg for the next season to further cushion farmers against rising cost of inputs.

He said his administration will not waiver in its efforts to cushion consumers against high food prices. "As a caring administration, we had to take steps to cushion consumers against the high food prices. In this regard, we instituted and successfully implemented a subsidised maize flour programme that lowered the price of a 2kg packet of maize flour from $1.5 to $0.90,” Kenyatta said.

An estimated 5.6 million people in Kenya are affected by drought, including 3.4 million people who are food insecure, according to the United Nations.

Of particular concern are the 2.6 million people now facing severe food insecurity, including 500,000 who are experiencing ‘emergency’ levels of food insecurity, according to the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) system.

Xinhua.