Nairobi, March 31 -- Since independence, successive governments have been dogged with scandals in their quest to ensure food security and sufficiency, with imports and fertiliser at the core of most plans.

That is why it does not come as a surprise that President William Ruto's administration has been caught up in what is developing into a scandal on the quality of subsidised fertiliser.

From the 1970s when Kenya had the plan to build a factory, there has always been a stink on these plans as government officials, politicians, brokers and business people move into profit.

In 1975, the then finance minister Mwai Kibaki struck a deal with an American company to set up a fertiliser factory in Kenya, only for the taxpayers to shoulder the ...