Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has now said that the National Bio-Safety Authority (NBA) cannot be merged with Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (Kephis) as initially proposed.
Kagwe argued that the two entities cannot be merged owing to the international obligations that the country has. "There are some institutions of course that we have also realised cannot be merged at all and a good example is Kephis and NBA.
Those two cannot be merged because of international obligations that the country has," he explained.
The CS, however, said that they are exploring other proposed areas as some institutions by their very nature will stay separate. "Sometimes it is not necessarily merging organisations but putting together some sort of structures where services can be accessed at the same time and together so that even if they are different organisations and mandates one can be able to reach them quickly," he said. "That eases life for farmers and time spent by business people trying to establish themselves, that is the purpose of these mergers and also create efficiency.
