President Uhuru Kenyatta will address problems affecting smallholder tea farmers in his last two years in office, Agriculture CS Peter Munya has said.
Munya said the sector employs 6.5 million people directly and indirectly and earns the country Sh1.6 billion annually in foreign exchange. It is also a source of livelihood to 680,000 people with 90 per cent being smallholder farmers.
“Annually, Nyeri county alone produces about 20 million kilos of made tea that accounts for about 3 per cent of the national production while the county’s tea proceeds range from Sh3 to Sh4 billion,” he said.
The CS criticised those using false claims to derail the tea sector reforms through new regulations.
He said the draft regulations were shared with farmers, published in newspapers, online, sent to stakeholders and advertised on TV for public participation. Feedback was received from all stakeholders, including farmers, MPs and various organisations.
Kenya Tea Development Agency officials have claimed that the regulations had not been subjected to public participation.
But Munya said public participation started way back in 2014, adding that those who still have more views can still present them.
He called on KTDA to stop wasting farmers’ money by hiring lawyers after the agency challenged the regulations in court.
CS Munya spoke during a consultative meeting with Nyeri tea farmers at Othaya stadium in Nyeri on Friday.
The regulations, tabled in Parliament in April by the CS, propose regulatory measures to cushion small scale tea farmers from exploitation by middlemen.
The measures include streamlining tea auction at the Mombasa auction which has been dominated by cartels.
Munya said KTDA should focus on tea alone, saying the agency has started 12 other subsidiaries which are not connected to tea and are of no help to farmers but are instead exploiting them.
“We want to rededicate them back to the mission of supporting the smallholder tea farmers and stop running other businesses such as insurance and issuing of loans which has continued to oppress tea farmers,” he said.
Farmers welcomed the regulations, saying they will greatly contribute to improving their tea earnings.
Wairimu Ngambi said women suffer most from arthritis for waking up early and working in tea farms on rainy days.
The farmers also complained that KTDA has not been consulting them when making major decisions.
Daniel Gitahi said the regulations have addressed issues that were oppressive to farmers.
“Streamlining of KTDA is just meant to ensure that farmers get better returns from their crop but the government is not taking over KTDA as people have been claiming,” he said.
Wambugu Nyamu criticised the directors for skipping CS Munya’s Friday meeting, saying their move was an indication that they were not genuine.
Only Gitonga Wanjau, a director at Gathuthi tea factory, attended the meeting.
Wanjau said the tea regulations should be implemented as soon as possible.
“Payment to farmers of at least 50 percent for the green leaf delivered every month should be within 30 days from receipt of the proceeds of the sale of tea,” he noted.
