• Calls for an urgent forensic audit at the KTDA board.
Image: JAMES MBAKA
ODM leader Raila Odinga has asked Parliament to come up with legislation to end monopoly of the Kenya Tea Development Agency.
He also said the courts should play their role and help farmers.
The former prime minister who spoke at his Capitol Hill offices on Wednesday after meeting directors from Kiru tea factory accused the current KTDA board of running down the sector.
He called for an urgent forensic audit at the KTDA board which he said has clinged to power since the year 2000 despite mismanaging the industry.
"There is a shocking story that requires urgent intervention. We are losing tea to corruption and mismanagement," Raila said.
The former prime minister said that due to mismanagement in the tea industry, many farmers are uprooting the crop across the country in what is posing a threat to livelihoods.
"This is how the collapse of the coffee sector started," he said adding that the financial stability of farmers is threatened with majority drowning in debts.
"We risk losing the country's top foreign income earner unless urgent action is taken at the top leadership of KTDA," he added.
He said KTDA has lost touch with farmers and have set the farmers on the path of hopelessness.
"Tea is auctioned at Sh80 per kilo but farmers are paid Sh18 per kilo and this is affecting there lifeline," he added noting that the same tea is imported expensively into kenyan shelves.
He said Kenya loses at least 100 million kilograms of tea to hawking each year in a clear manifestation of "something wrong with KTDA."
This he said has forced farmers into debts through borrowing from Shylocks and microfinance institutions.Rails said the Ministry of agriculture should institute far reaching reforms at KTDA to save farmers." There is a feeling that the current board cannot lead this reforms.There is need for a forensic audit.
He called on the DCI to urgently probe the issues at KTDA.'The DCI needs to take interest of farmers and safeguard their interests at the KTDA," he said.
He added: "We won't sit back and watch as tea goes the road of coffer and sugarcane. We want a thorough audit of the current board at KTDA."