Nairobi, Nov. 8 -- Let us talk of bixa, or what is known as annatto. Perhaps you have never heard about this crop, but you will now. Not because the Daniel arap Moi regime sold a Coast-based bixa parastatal to former State House operative Joshua Kulei's company but because of yet another opportunity we have missed as a country.
How many people know that Kenya is one of the few producers of this drought-resistant food-colouring plant whose red colour is used in the manufacture of lipstick, shampoo, skin care products, dye and whose oil is used as part of the Caribbean cuisine?
This plant, which also grows in Peru, is used as a coating pigment in medicinal tablets, as a spice and in the shoe polish industry.
Once again, the Kenyan coastal ...