Tea farmers from Murang’a County want a new deal with KTDA that will see them have more control over their produce and earn more.
Directors of 10 tea factories on Friday signed and submitted a draft management agreement that seeks to ensure the roles taken up by the Kenya Tea Development Agency are reduced.
Following the expiry of management agreements between KTDA and the 71 factories it manages in the country, the factories were required to draft and submit new ones to the Kenya Tea Board by Friday for approval.
But as the majority of the factories borrowed from the previous agreements, factories from Murang’a county came together and hired a consultant who drafted an agreement with fresh demands.
The consultant conducted interviews with farmers, tea buying centres committees, tea factories directors and KTDA to ensure the new agreement does not favour one side.
According to KTDA Zone Two board member James Githinji, the expired agreement had some issues that did not favour farmers.
Under the former agreement, Githinji who is also the vice chairperson of the Ngere tea factory said KTDA charged factories about 2.5 per cent of the gross turn over which he said was a huge cost.
The agency also had too many staff members who are paid using farmers' money, he noted, adding that they want the agency to operate with a leaner staff to make it cost-effective.
“The income of normal small-scale farmers is quite small compared to the salaries at KTDA, so we want a win-win situation where the staff and the management agent fee are reduced so that farmers can earn more,” he said.
He said Murang’a farmers want KTDA to only be involved in technical services such as farm management, leaf collection and processing of tea while the rest of the services that include financial, marketing and administrative roles be undertaken by the factory.
With the new agreement, the 10 factories have come up with a new organisational structure that will facilitate the factory to take over the non-technical roles previously under KTDA.
They have also established performance appraisals for both factories’ management and KTDA as the management agent to ensure farmers’ properties are managed properly.
Githinji said the new agreement will see farmers’ returns improve from the current 70 percent of tea turnover to about 85 per cent.
“KTDA should listen to what farmers want and how they want their tea to be managed. The farmer is the principal in the sector, if KTDA refuses to sign the new agreement, farmers can get another management agent to manage their tea," Githinji said.
“The farmer has invested a lot in tilling the land, plucking and delivering tea and nobody should dictate what the farmer should do."
If approved by the Kenya Tea Board, the new management agreement will be in operation for five years.
KTDA Zone 3 board member Chege Kirundi explained that the agency entered into a new management contract with tea factories when it was privatised in 2000.
The contracts expired in 2019 and since then, Kirundi said farmers have been agitating for a review of the contracts with new terms of the agreement.
Kirundi who is also the chairperson of the Kiru Tea Factory ran into problems when he attempted to compel the agency to enter into a new agreement with the factory in 2016, a squabble that saw the factory’s board of directors split and lasted until the reforms were implemented by the government in 2020.
“With the new agreement, a new order of management will kick in that will reduce the powers bestowed on KTDA and increase powers given to tea factories’ boards,” he said.
“We are hoping that KTDA which is part of us and I’m also a director there will now take this draft and put in their own input to enrich it so that it will be a win-win for both farmers and agency.”
The new management structure, he said, will drastically reduce factories’ expenditure as factories’ staff take over more roles.
It will also ensure there is transparency and accountability in the elections process that were previously shadowed by irregularities.
“Elections will remain one man one vote. Issues of who has more shares will no longer be a factor. We have given the administration a copy to understand where we are and another copy will be given to the county government," Kirundi said.
Kirundi said the Tea Board, KTDA and factories will now sit down and scrutinise the draft before establishing the way forward.
(Edited by Tabnacha O)
