As Kenyans see their politicians raving on and on about the 2026-2027 national budget, the biggest problem for millions of Kenyans is that they have no food and are scrambling just to get something to eat with their families every day.
This is happening in a country with vast amounts of land which they have used for generations to feed themselves.
How did we get here?
I am the son a plough farmer in Kenya and they had been peasant farmers for generations.
So, they take us to schools and do everything to give us a chance not to be peasant farmers.
In the early years for us our families were hand ploughing, which they were very good at and producing maize, potatoes, vegetables, fruits and everything to make life good for their families.
Plough The Land Program:
In the big picture, our ancestors who invented Oxen farming in Kenya must rest in peace as legends of our agricultural technological revolution over the generations.
Without this form of farming our ancestors, grandparents and in my case, my parents would have starved to death.
But now in our country this kind of farming is dead because it cannot work for anybody.
Here is a plan.
Develop a National Agriculture and Food Production program (NAFP)
Right now many Kenyans have idle land where they don’t grow anything. People don’t have tractors to plough the land in time. They do not have the right seeds to grow maize, rice, avocados or anything else, they do not have fertilizers.
Let Kenya build a system of agriculture and food production where your tribe does not matter, remove the idea of shareholders in government resources because Kenya is one country and all Kenyans pay taxes to the government that must work with every Kenyan regardless of who they vote for in any election.
- Every Kenyan with a piece of land for farming should have access to ploughing tractors at the right time.
I know that because I own a ploughing tractor in Kenya at my home. It is crazy at the beginning of the farming season. And even worse when the rains make the roads so bad that for many farmers no tractor can reach their land and plough it for crops.
Hand digging of land can’t work now, can it? Oxen ploughing is gone I mean even oxen are gone.
So how do Kenyans plough their land to produce food and do everything else to add to what our lands, rivers, lakes, magnificent wildlife, and great peoples everywhere already offer the country?
Right now it will cost any farmer Sh. 3,000 – 5,000 to plough one acre of land and most Kenyan rural farmers cannot afford that. So people are starving with their land lying fallow right in front of them.
Until and unless the Kenyan national government and the counties figure out how to assist peasant farmers to plough their land and plant crops yearly, starvation and the high cost of living will remain permanent in our country forever.
Once Kenyans plough their land they can plant anything there. They know what to do and they will have all kinds of fruits, vegetables and meat products all year round.
Plough The Land Program is my proposal for our national and county governments. The two levels of government must set up a program where every small-scale farmer in Kenya will has an affordable way to plough their land.
Then get them seeds and fertilizers and we are on to the stage of a country that can feed itself, export food and grow to the next economic level.
In the 2026-2027 National Budget just released Sh. 772 billion allocated for health is good.
Education expenditure has been increased from Sh. 81 billion to Sh. 782 billion. That is great for all Kenyans.
This goes on in every department where Kenyans need government funding to improve people’s lives and grow the economy.
Here is the question.
How much money has the government allocated to help Kenyan farmers in rural areas to be able to plough their land to get it ready to facilitate economic growth.
Is that budget Kenyan rural farmers Sh. 10 billion? Sh. 2 billion or zero billion as always?
Of course, the budget allocated billions for subsidized fertilizer but to the millions of Kenyans who cannot plough their small pieces of land, the fertilizers are of no value at all.
In reality the subsidized fertilizers are for the rich with their huge farms which are ready to use those fertilizers because it cannot be used in a piece of land which has not been ploughed.
That is kind of common sense and a cruel reality on small scale Kenyan rural farmers all over the country for whom the fertilizers are meant to help.
Adongo Ogony is a Human Rights Activist and a Writer who lives in Toronto, Canada
