Kirinyaga Central MP Gachoki Gitari while meeting his constituents on October 30,2025Kirinyaga residents have raised an alarm over the escalating theft of coffee in their farms, occasioning them huge losses.
The theft is being driven by the rising prices of coffee in the international market, prompting some brokerage farms to start buying the produce directly from small-holder farmers.
This has in turn fuelled coffee hawking despite most small-holder farmers selling their produce through their coffee co-operative societies that then sell it at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange.
The residents have now forwarded a list of 18 people suspected to be fuelling the theft in the area, demanding immediate action to stem the trend.
MP Gachoki Gitari said he has received the list and forwarded it to the DCI for investigation and legal action.
He said the theft has been causing locals sleepless nights as they are forced to take turns keeping vigil at night, when the theft is mostly perpetrated.
The culprits, he said, harvest even immature berries as they rush to steal as much coffee as possible before daylight falls.
“That’s why they have even been cutting coffee bushes and fleeing with them. Those are unwise thieves because even as a thief, if you steal everything today, where will you steal tomorrow?” he asked.
Even more disheartening, he said, is the fact that the brokers buy the produce at a throwaway price from the thieves.
Coffee berries in a farm in Gatanga, Murang'a countyGitari said crippling the coffee theft syndicate is the only way that local farmers will start benefiting from the crop and be motivated to raise their production.
“These people give the youths cash on delivery, which motivates them to invade farms while people are asleep at night,” he said.
In Kirinyaga Central, two households are counting losses after coffee bushes were cut with the intention of harvesting the berries in another location.
In Kiamuruga, the MP said more than 20 cases of theft have been reported, causing farmers to live in apprehension.
Many farmers invested heavily in their farms this year following skyrocketing coffee rates in the market.
The MP called on the local security team, led by county commissioner Hussein Alasow, to upscale surveillance and help protect coffee farmers from the unscrupulous traders.
Kirinyaga county is the highest coffee-producing county in the country, followed by Nyeri and Murang’a counties.
In the 2024-25 coffee season, Gachami factory paid the highest amount of Sh145 per kilo. It is is a member of the Baragwi Coffee Co-operative Society.
All in all, 27 out of the 75 factories in the county paid more than Sh100 per kilo.
