Agriculture CS Peter Munya has called for a forensic audit of KTDA to clean up the agency and get rid of cartels.
Munya said the agency loses about Sh200 million per month. "That is the information we have from insiders and an investigation would reveal the rot in the agency," he said.
He urged Parliament to move with speed and conduct a forensic audit in order to help farmers.
He spoke at Kionyo, Imenti South constituency, on Sunday where he met tea farmers from Meru county.
The CS was accompanied by Imenti South MP Kathuri Murungi, EALA MP Mpuru Aburi, Meru county commissioner Allan Machari and other leaders.
Munya said the new tea regulations will help uplift dwindling fortunes of tea farmers in the country.
He pointed out that some directors have overstayed at the helm at the expense of others. Munya said the tea reforms will help farmers get rid of brokers.
The CS said some legislators were opposing the reforms without scrutinising them to see if they will help farmers.
MP Murungi said directors were afraid of changes in KTDA. "In the country we want to change the Constitution after only ten years. Why is KTDA opposing change after 25 years? Maybe they are hiding something," Murungi said.
Mpuru said the situation of tea farmers in the hands of KTDA has been deteriorating hence the need for reforms.
President Uhuru Kenyatta on December 14, 2019 directed the Agriculture CS and the Competition Authority of Kenya to oversee radical policy and structural reforms to the tea sector, following an outcry by tea farmers.
The key focus was on ring-fencing farmer's incomes, instilling corporate governance and an overhaul of the leadership structure in KTDA, subsidiaries and factories.
Under the new regulations announced by Munya, KTDA is set to lose its grip.
The Crops (Tea Industry) Regulations 2020 provides that all tea buyers will pay in full for all teas they win at the auction before they take custody and lift the tea for export.
Edited by Henry Makori
