On Tuesday, October 11, reports emerged that President William Ruto’s government was selling fertilizer donated by a Russian company, Uralchem.
According to the statement, which was attributed to Dmitry Konyaev, the Uralchem CEO, the firm advised Kenyan farmers to boycott buying the donation as a State subsidy.
“It has come to the notice of our company that fertilizer donated by our company as part of combating food insecurity in Africa is being sold in Kenya as part of the fertilizer subsidy,”
“We, therefore, with immediate effect recall the sale of our donations, and ask Kenyan farmers to boycott all efforts to sell our donations in the Kenyan market,” the report claimed.
As such, the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya presidential candidate Raila Odinga immediately pressed President Ruto to come clean on who was selling the fertilizer that had been donated to boost crop production.
In what appeared that Raila painted the Kenya Kwanza government in a bad light, the former Prime Minister said it was a shame for the president to sell a bag of donated fertilizer at a whooping KSh 3,500.
“They are being given free fertilizer by Russia but telling us they have lowered the price. Who is pocketing that KSh 3,500?” Raila Odinga posed.
However, in what seems like Raila was using fake news to attack William Ruto’s government, it later emerged that the reports were not true.
This was after the Russian embassy in Kenya flagged the statement as fake, even as it continued to stir debate on social media.
“Many fakes on Russian fertilizers are circulating in local social media. The Embassy of the Russian Federation hereby requests all users to verify information on Russian fertilizers in Kenya on official media resources of the Embassy,” said the Embassy on its official Twitter handle.
