Wrangles could cost Kenya key tea markets

Kenya risks losing key source markets for tea following last Friday's police raids at KTDA offices in Nairobi and the East African Tea Trade Association in Mombasa.

Kenya depends largely on Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Sudan for its tea markets.

The EATTA offices at the Kenyan coast, which host the Mombasa Tea Auction, said they have since received calls and emails from the UK, Egypt and Pakistani.

Managing director Edward Mudibo said the raids by the Directorate of Criminal Investigation are denting the image of the Kenyan tea sector abroad.

“The raids have created a lot of uncertainties. Our biggest tea consumers like Pakistan, which buys 38 per cent of all our tea, have written to ask what is happening,” he said.

On Friday at around 3pm, EATTA offices were raided by officers from the DCI and regular police.

They served EATTA with a court order issued by the Chief Magistrate’s Court sitting at the Nairobi Milimani law courts in Miscellaneous Criminal Application No E1248 of the 2021 Republic, through Attorney General, versus KTDA and 3 others.

EATTA was listed as the fourth respondent. The other respondents are subsidiaries of KTDA.

“EATTA is a private entity and not a subsidiary of any government department. The occurrences of Friday come as an affront to EATTA’s rights as a private entity and it will forever be marked as a date which will live in infamy,” Mudibo said.

He said EATTA will defend itself against aggression to protect its members’ constitutional rights.

Mudibo said the Mombasa Tea Auction is the largest in the world, with 75 per cent of the volume of tea traded through the tea auctions.

He said 32 per cent of the tea exported to the world passes through Mombasa.

Last year, the tea traded through the Mombasa Tea Auction was 521 million kilos compared to 454 million kilos in 2019, an increase of 15 per cent.

“On average tea worth Sh2 billion is traded at the auction weekly...more than 7,500,000 Kenyans directly earn a living from tea,” Mudibo said.

He appealed to the national government to resolve the issues around the tea sector amicably.

He said after Friday's raid, they had to postpone Monday’s tea auction to Tuesday.

“The officers carted away our laptops, computers and phones. On Monday, we had to look for other laptops and computers to set the auction for Tuesday and Wednesday,” Mudibo said.