• Farmers accuse the Judiciary of helping KTDA to maintain the status quo that has kept them in a cycle of poverty and debts.
• They threatened to stop picking tea if new regulations are not implemented.
Image: Alice Waithera
Image: Alice Waithera
Tea farmers from Murang’a and Nyeri counties will stage mass action to demand the immediate withdrawal of cases filed against new regulations.
Sector opinion leaders from the two counties say they will join their counterparts from Kirinyaga in marching to Kenya Tea Development Agency’s offices in Nairobi to demand accountability.
The leaders met on Tuesday in Kenol, Murang’a, where they accused KTDA of using hefty sums of farmers' money to finance court cases meant to exploit them further.
They said the new regulations gazetted by the government in May are their only way of breaking the cycle of poverty to which they have been condemned.
Patrick Ngunjiri, a farmer supplying Gitugi factory, Nyeri, said the new regulations set in motion reforms meant to dismantle an opaque and exploitative system that has enslaved them for decades.
“But in a move to maintain the status quo, KTDA and its affiliates went to court and in the last two months have obtained ex parte orders to stop implementation of the regulations,” Ngujiri said.
Ngunjiri said by issuing the orders, the courts have become the stumbling block to reforms, keeping farmers from economic emancipation.
The Judiciary failed to consider the plight of more than 680,000 small-scale farmers who have been suffering under KTDA’s management, he said.
“We are angered by these orders and have decided it is now time for mass action to protest against the court’s decision to keep us in the status quo and propagate 'animal farm justice' where some animals are treated better than others,” he said.
He said the regulations’ benefits will not be realised and farmers will continue to live in the modern-day slavery perpetrated by the agency unless the cases are withdrawn.
Ngunjiri, also a lawyer, said farmers can exercise their sovereign authority as shareholders of tea factories and invoke the Companies Act, 2015, and their factories’ articles of association to call for extraordinary general meetings and make resolutions that sever their ties with KTDA.
Moffat Kamau from Makomboki factory accused KTDA of blocking any attempt by farmers to free themselves from the agency's stranglehold.
Kamau said the meagre annual bonuses that the agency has announced will not be accepted and farmers will hold nationwide protests.
In the recent prices, Kebirigo factory in Kisii and Gianchore in Nyamira received as low as Sh10 per kilogramme, while Nduti and Njunu received Sh24 and Sh25 respectively.
“We are saying enough is enough. If these regulations are not immediately enforced, we will stop picking tea and call for mass action. KTDA will know that tea belongs to farmers,” Kamau said.
Samuel Njunu from Njunu tea factory said KTDA has compromised factories’ directors who should fight for farmers’ interests.
“The directors have refused to sit down with us and are being used by KTDA to peddle lies to susceptible farmers. They should also get ready to pack and go. We elected them and are ready to take back their powers,” he said.
Mary Nderitu, also from Gitugi factory, said it is women who know the pain of tending tea farms and many of them suffer from arthritis, despite having nothing much to show for their hard work.
She said the crop does not earn them enough money to support their families and has instead confined them to cumulating debts.
Wambugu Gachunji from Kanyenya-ini factory accused KTDA of paying meagre bonuses to retain part of their payments to finance court cases.
“We want the cases withdrawn with immediate effect, failing which we will stop harvesting tea,” he said.
Edited by F'Orieny