- AFFA, according to an Executive Order issued by President Uhuru Kenyatta, has failed its mandate.
- The coffee bill provides for the creation of a new coffee board to be chaired by an appointee of the President.
The government has sounded the death knell for the Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food Authority.
This follows efforts to delink the Coffee Board of Kenya from the authority, on grounds of the latter’s non-performance.
AFFA was created in 2013 after various crop boards were turned into directorates managed by the authority.
Apart from the Coffee board, it was a one-stop agency for the Kenya Sugar Board, Coconut Development Authority, Tea Board of Kenya, the Horticultural Crops Development Authority as well as the Pyrethrum Board of Kenya.
The Cotton Development Authority, the Sisal Board of Kenya; Pests Control Products Board; and the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service are also under AFFA.
But the authority, according to an Executive Order issued by President Uhuru Kenyatta, has failed in its mandate. The President observed that AFFA has become institutionally unfocused and failed to improve the performance of the coffee sector.
Uhuru further observed that the foods authority was unable to improve the performance of the crop value chains.
The government is thus seeking to delink coffee from the authority through the Coffee Bill, 2021. The bill provides for the creation of a new coffee board to be chaired by an appointee of the President.
Three members representing cooperative societies where coffee is grown; two members representing growers, and two from coffee trade organisations will be part of the board.
Others would be PSs for Agriculture, Treasury, Cooperative Development or their designated representatives as well as a representative of the Council of Governors.
The Cabinet secretary for Agriculture will appoint the representatives of the cooperatives, growers, and trade organisations.
The government has taken the steps in efforts to streamline the coffee sector, which is on its deathbed. Kenya has some of the best coffees in the world.
But poor management of the sector has seen mills grind to a halt, and farmers forced to cut down their shrubs amid heavy losses.
Uhuru directed that the bill be transmitted to Parliament, being part of recommendations of a taskforce that reviewed the sector.
The development follows months after MPs approved a bill which delinked the Tea Board from the foods authority.
Members of the Agriculture committee of the National Assembly are expected to meet Tuesday morning to approve the Sugar Bill, 2019.
A key proposal in the legislation by Kanduyi MP Wafula Wamunyinyi is to re-create the Kenya Sugar Board and give farmers a 51 per cent shareholding in privatised sugar firms.
In the proposed coffee laws, millers, marketing agents, buyers, roasters, warehousemen and importers of value-added coffee will be required to seek fresh licences.
The coffee board will also conduct fresh registration of millers, marketing agents, buyers, roasters, packers, management agents, and warehousemen.
Coffee Board of Kenya will be run by a managing director who shall be an ex-officio member of the board, which may also co-opt professional experts.
The board will assume all rights, obligations, liabilities and contracts relating to coffee which were vested in or imposed on AFFA.
Staff of the defunct board—before the consolidation in 2013—will be required to apply afresh for the jobs.
The bill sponsored by Majority leader Amos Kimunya says the board will, in consultation with the county governments, promote competition in the coffee industry.
The board is also tasked with promoting the production, processing and branding of Kenya coffee locally and internationally.
It will also generally regulate the coffee industry in the public interest, being the second agency that is being hived off the Agriculture and Food Authority.
The proposed coffee board, the bill says, will regulate operations of millers, marketing agents, buyers, roasters, packers, management agents and warehousemen.
The team will also establish standards on production, processing, transportation, packaging, blending, and storage, preservation of coffee and coffee products.
It will also advise the Agriculture CS on levies, fees and import or export duties on coffee, and may also borrow in consultation with Treasury.
The law establishes a coffee research institute council which whose director general will be CEO of the council.
County governments are also tipped for crucial roles in the sector as they would be responsible for coffee grown in the respective counties.
The bill further seeks to create a Coffee Stabilisation Fund which shall be managed by the board.
A portion of the Commodity Fund financed by the Coffee Levy before it was abolished will be re-allocated and form part of the assets of the Fund.
“The board shall apply the monies to income and price stabilisation and any investments that help stabilise the prices paid to farmers,” the bill reads.
The bill also establishes Coffee Dispute Resolution Committee to arbitrate on issues raised by warring parties.
-Edited by SKanyara