SBL Manufaturers says NCPB has distributed 100,000 bags of suspected fake fertiliser

It is now emerging that the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) distributed about 100,000 bags of suspected fake fertiliser from SBL Innovate Manufacturers Limited between 2022 and 2024.

The company's director, Josiah Kariuki, who appeared before the National Assembly’s Agriculture Committee on Tuesday, said he had an agreement with NCPB to sell his product, and that before the contract was signed, the State agency took samples for testing.

Kariuki, who was taken to task by MPs for allegedly selling diatomite in the name of fertiliser, denied the claims arguing that what he supplied to the market was tested and certified by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS).

"There is no single bag or any farmer who has complained or shown on TV...GPC is a soil...we know and we have seen many times the people who are selling soil so those people should compensate the farmers, those who are selling the soil," said Kariuki.

However, members of the committee were quick to point out that KEBS had given a report which revealed that the product Kariuki distributed between March 2022 and March 2024 was not the one it certified as legit.

"The product you took to KEBS is not the product you are circulating, that is the point. Whatever the farmers are using is probably what you gave to KEBS that time and it could have assisted them but what you are selling now is a fake product; it is rock," Committee Chairperson John Mutunga said.

"In 2022 it was a soil conditioner...In 2023 it has turned to an organic fertilizer and in fact what you are selling now is organic fertiliser...GPC original plus whatever it is," Soy MP David Kiplagat said.

Kariuki also revealed that NCPB distributed more than the 70,000 bags they disclosed to the committee on Monday.

"NCPB have done about 100,000 bags, I used to give extra bags, I have given extra bags more than 20,000 bags when I was doing demos...so any farmer used to go and buy anything from cereals board you used to get an extra bag for free," he said.

Another concern by the MPs was the contract between SBL Innovate and African Diatomite Limited which Kariuki had used to secure the deal with NCPB.

"You started selling this product about 8 months before you got a contract with African Diatomite, you have said here you landed the product after you had already had a contract, so are you here to waste our time?" Mutunga posed.  

"I am not lying to you...what I say is that the contract was not signed by that time...but we were still selling with them," Kariuki responded.

Meanwhile, DCI detectives on Tuesday spent the day at the NCPB collecting material which will help in investigations over the matter. On Monday, top officials from the board were grilled over the matter.