John Allan Namu explains how he exposed fake government fertilizer scandal

Veteran investigative journalist John Allan Namu has elaborated on the genesis of his new documentary, "Fertile Deception" which exposed the widespread circulation of counterfeit government fertiliser across the country.

Speaking on Citizen TV's Newsgang Show on Thursday, Namu revealed that his team at African Uncensored began working on the project as far back as November 2022 after catching wind of the story from a source who introduced him to a man involved in the counterfeit trade.

"This investigation began in late October....early November 2022. I got a leak from a source who led me to someone who had been transporting the fake product across the country. What he saw shocked him because in as much as he was being paid, he saw exactly where this fertiliser was coming from and it was going as far as Uasin Ngishu and Kitui Counties and other parts of the country," he said.

Determined to get to the bottom of the revelation, Namu mobilised his team to go and film the evidence that would shake the nation in March 2024.

"So once we heard this story we thought this is incredible. I mean how could this have happened without there being intelligence agencies who were abreast of the issue? So my team members went and filmed and when I saw the footage I was in disbelief!" he said.

The next step of the investigation, saw Namu and his team collect samples of the counterfeit fertiliser from different National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) depots across the country. Only forensic tests could confirm the precise composition of the counterfeit products.

"We spent the better part of 2023 collecting samples from at least three to four other parts of the country from NCPB stores and we took them to two separate laboratories, one at Egerton University and the other a private laboratory just to verify whether the result we were seeing was the same and those results came out the same," he said.  

Namu added that the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) confirmed their findings just days before the explosive documentary aired.

"KEBS, who we had given a right of response questions in January, came out two days before the documentary ran and they said that they had actually conducted their own tests on 59 samples and they tallied with what we had found. So there is a body of scientific evidence that speaks to that particular fertiliser," Namu said.  

He added that the documentary not only exposed a massive counterfeit operation but also sparked outrage among farmers who started testing the authenticity of their own fertiliser supplies.

"This speaks of a much deeper, long-running issue with counterfeits and fake products being pushed onto the public either at the expense of the government or with some government agencies and figures taking part in this whole thing at the farmers' loss," he said.  

"You know what it means when someone loses a harvest. This is why I think there has been so much anger about this issue because every right-thinking Kenyan appreciates just how deep and menacing this issue can be and what it means to every family that puts food on its table."