ODM leader Raila Odinga has appealed to senators to pass the tea Bill as a way to stop dramatic scenes seen in the past.
In a statement on Monday, Raila said senators must help the country and those ugly dramatic scenes of tea farmers uprooting their crops or promising to do so because the crop no longer pays.
"Fixing the tea sector is a critical step to putting the country on a path of economic recovery through agriculture," he said.
Raila said the tea Bill is critical to ensuring financial security of the farmers.
"The Bill will ensure that tea auction organisers, buyers and brokers pay farmers within 14days from the proceeds of the sale of tea.
He said Kenya needs an urgent revival of Tea Board of Kenya and the Tea Research Foundation, which used to carry out research.
"The Bill would be an excellent Christmas and new year gift to our long suffering farmers and economy.It would be the right thing to do," he said.
The Bill will also ensure that farmers are paid 50 per cent of their payments 14 days after the sale of their tea, making it impossible for Kenya Tea Development Agency to hold onto farmers’ money.
As a result, therefore, KTDA (Kenya Tea Development Agency) will no longer have access to the money since it will now be controlled at the factory level. Farmers will then receive the rest of the money at the end of the financial year.
Farmers have lamented that the agency holds a huge chunk of their money until the end of the year when they are paid the annual bonuses, leaving them to survive on loans which they receive from the agency’s affiliate companies.
