Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua now says he will help tea farmers ward off twilight girls who flood tea zones when annual bonuses are released.
The girls are known to book local hotels during the month of October when tea bonuses are released to lure men and swindle them out of their money.
Shopping centres are usually filled with the call girls weeks before the bonuses are announced as the girls prepare to entice mostly elderly men.
Incidences of men being drugged in bars and losing huge amounts of money have been reported in various parts of the county in the past.
Last year, tea farmers were paid Sh44.15 billion in bonuses, the highest payment ever, with Gachagua expressing optimism that the payment will be even higher this year.
The deputy president said the government has set a minimum guaranteed return of Sh80 for farmers.
The deputy president said he will not allow the twilight girls to continue stealing from tea farmers.
“I will fight them this time round. I will not allow them to take the bonuses that we have fought for from our farmers. Let them stay away in the towns where they usually are. Our women here are good Christians,” he said while speaking at Muthithi Catholic Church in Murang’a County.
“They will come and because we men have easy hearts, they will confuse us and take our money,” he added.
Gachagua said farmers work hard year round to rake in returns from their farms and that it is unfair for the money to be taken by people who did not contribute to the hard work.
He noted that the reforms being implemented in the agriculture sector have resulted in more money going to farmers and urged them to use the cash to better their living standards.
Previously, prices would fall to as low as Sh20, resulting in many farmers uprooting the crops and venturing in other kinds of farming.
He said the government has commenced plans to waive debts of up to Sh23 billion incurred by coffee farms as part of the reforms in the sector.
Gachagua also pledged to look into the macadamia sector after Kangema MP Peter Kihungi said brokers were underpaying for the produce.
The national government lifted the ban on exportation of raw nuts to save farmers from losses in November last year on condition that exporters would buy for not less than Sh100 per kilogram.
But Kihungi said the exporters have been sending brokers who buy at Sh70 per kilogram.
Leaders who attended the church service heaped praises on Gachagua for the reforms they said have empowered farmers and strengthened the economy.
Last week, Gachagua met with stakeholders in the avocado sector and pledged to help review the Finance Act, 2023, to exempt farmers from the five per cent tax on agriculture produce.
