Murang'a tea directors dismiss elections

About 60 directors from 10 tea factories in Murang’a county have said they are in office legitimately and dismissed elections held on Saturday to replace them.

The directors who met at Ngere tea factory in Gatanga on Monday said the elections were illegal and not backed by the Companies Act.

Ngere tea factory vice chairperson Henry Karuma said directors were duly elected by farmers to represent them and that they were talking on their behalf.

Karuma who spoke on behalf of the directors said farmers should have written to the factories requesting a special general meeting before the elections were held.

“Every year, two electoral zones go to elections and in three years all directors are subjected to the electoral process,” he said.

Six factories, namely, Makomboki, Nduti, Kanyenya-ini, Njunu, Githambo and Ikumbi, held their elections while four others, Ngere, Gacharage, Kiru and Gatunguru will hold theirs on March 31.

They said it is Agriculture CS Peter Munya who went to court and eventually secured an order stopping the elections.

Two weeks ago, the President issued an executive order directing the newly formed Tea Board of Kenya to sanction elections in all factories.

He also ordered the board to come up with regulations that will guide directors’ elections and set their term limits, saying farmers’ returns continue to dwindle. HE called for urgent democratic control of KTDA and its affiliates to be realigned in favour of farmers.

But Karuma said they were still waiting for the Tea Board of Kenya to draft the regulations and were surprised that the CS drew the elections schedule yet the board was yet to be constituted.

“As tea factories directors, we categorically say that we are legitimately in office and will always defend the tea factories from attempts to take them down the road of destruction,” he said.

He took a swipe at the Kenya Tea Sector lobby chairperson Irungu Nyakera whom he accused of using his job to gain political mileage.

Karuma further claimed that directors have sought dialogue with Munya numerous times but that the CS has declined to meet them.

“At the end of the day, we just want the farmers we represent to benefit and that is why we support the formation of a tea board that will help us in marketing tea. We want the government to fund tea marketing the same way it funds the tourism board,” he said, adding that the main cause of meagre returns is a constricted market.

He said the factories produced 40 million kilograms of tea and increased supply causes the commodity to saturate the market and decrease prices.

“So many countries do not consume our tea yet we are only focusing on directors and accusing them of misappropriating farmers’ money. Directors are very keen and have their figures in black and white. Anybody who claims they have taken farmers' money should be able to prove it or face the law,” he added.

He said he was ready to relinquish his position if fairly ousted but vowed to continue safeguarding farmers’ property until that happens.

But one of the directors who was elected on Saturday said when they visited their respective factories on Monday, they did not find the managers in all the six firms that held elections.

“They all went into hiding so we did a brief meeting amongst ourselves and left. Some who went back to the factories today, however, found them and we are informed they are getting along well,” the director who sought anonymity said.

He rubbished claims that the factories were not notified of the special general meeting, saying all factory managers and outgoing directors were served with a 21-day notice while copies were printed and distributed in tea buying centres.

“The Articles of Association of the factories dictate that an annual general meeting should be held no later than 15 months. The last AGMs were held in 2019 so two shareholders in every factory accordingly wrote to the factories requesting for the special meeting,” he added.

Edited by Henry Makori