Thou­sands upon thou­sands of Kenyan farms could be in big trou­ble. They could be expe­ri­enc­ing a silent scourge. When the very tools meant to nur­ture our lands turn harm­ful, the echoes of betray­al res­onate far and wide across the fields and futures of our farm­ers. The issue of fake, inauthen­tic fer­til­iz­ers is a nation­al emer­gency that deserves speedy deci­sive action.Any­thing less would be a betray­al to farm­ers and Kenyans as a whole.

The sanc­ti­ty of fer­til­iz­er qual­i­ty, defined by strin­gent stan­dards, under­scores its crit­i­cal­i­ty to agri­cul­ture. Yet, devi­a­tions from these standards—often dis­missed under the veil of semantics—are noth­ing short of a grave assault on con­sumer trust and agri­cul­tur­al integri­ty. With the cur­rent gov­ern­men­t’s ascen­sion on promis­es of revi­tal­iz­ing agri­cul­ture, the ram­pant dis­tri­b­u­tion of sub­stan­dard fer­til­iz­ers not only under­mines these vows but also jeop­ar­dizes the very foun­da­tion of our food security.

The stakes are alarm­ing­ly high, as the reper­cus­sions of this deceit extend beyond mere eco­nom­ic loss.

First, con­sid­er the per­il to our food secu­ri­ty and agri­cul­tur­al pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. Our neigh­bors in Zim­bab­we, Mozam­bique, Botswana, and Namib­ia, who once stood as our fall­back dur­ing past agri­cul­tur­al tri­als, now grap­ple with their own crop fail­ures due to errat­ic weath­er pat­terns. The specter of fail­ing crops exac­er­bat­ed by coun­ter­feit fer­til­iz­ers presents a dire scenario—where would we turn if our own yields fal­ter under the weight of this deceit?

Sec­ond­ly, the integri­ty of our soil is at risk. A com­pre­hen­sive soil sur­vey con­duct­ed in 2017 revealed a mis­match between the fer­til­iz­ers farm­ers use and what their lands gen­uine­ly need. The per­sis­tent use of unsuit­able or fake prod­ucts could lead to irre­versible soil degra­da­tion, turn­ing fer­tile lands bar­ren and dreams into dust. Imag­ine the plight of a farmer wit­ness­ing decades of soil nur­tur­ing undone by one sea­son of fraud­u­lent fertilizer.

Third­ly, the eco­nom­ic impact on our farm­ers is pro­found and far-reach­ing. Farm­ers invest their scarce resources in what they believe will ensure boun­ti­ful yields, only to find them­selves duped, their hopes dashed by the very inputs they trust­ed. The finan­cial strain is com­pound­ed by the emo­tion­al toll, as they grap­ple with the real­iza­tion that their hard-earned mon­ey and invalu­able time have been squandered.

This calami­ty calls not for mere reflec­tion but for res­olute action—accountability must be the cor­ner­stone of our response. It is imper­a­tive that the rel­e­vant author­i­ties inten­si­fy their scruti­ny and over­sight, ensur­ing that every gran­ule of fer­til­iz­er holds the promise of growth, not grief. We need strin­gent enforce­ment of stan­dards, rig­or­ous test­ing, and a trans­par­ent sup­ply chain to safe­guard the inter­ests of every Kenyan farmer.

More­over, edu­cat­ing our farm­ers about the impor­tance of cer­ti­fied fer­til­iz­ers and how to dis­tin­guish them from coun­ter­feit prod­ucts is cru­cial. This knowl­edge empow­ers them to make informed deci­sions, pro­tect­ing their invest­ments and liveli­hoods from the preda­to­ry prac­tices of unscrupu­lous vendors.

As a nation, we stand at a cross­roads, where the path we choose could deter­mine the fate of our agri­cul­tur­al her­itage and food sov­er­eign­ty. The issue of fake fer­til­iz­ers is a stark reminder of the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties with­in our agri­cul­tur­al sec­tor, vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties that must be addressed with urgency, trans­paren­cy, and an unwa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to the farm­ers who feed our nation.

Let this be a clar­i­on call to all stakeholders—from pol­i­cy­mak­ers to the cus­to­di­ans of our land—to ral­ly against this injus­tice with unwa­ver­ing vig­i­lance. We must also iden­ti­fy and seal the cracks through which the fake fer­til­iz­er fell through into soci­ety. That will require a com­bi­na­tion of leg­isla­tive, judi­cial and exec­u­tive action! Let me con­clude by remind­ing Kenyans that last Decem­ber, four Japan­ese Min­is­ters and five Deputy Min­is­ters resigned after accu­sa­tions of mis­us­ing the rul­ing Party’s funds emerged. That’s account­abil­i­ty. That’s what Kenya needs. For the Pub­lic to hold lead­ers account­able and for these lead­ers to take respon­si­bil­i­ty for the good and bad. Tua­jibike. Think green, act green!