Former Kenya Tea Development Agency directors will now be allowed to take part in factory elections, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has said.
Gachagua said the former officials should be allowed to contest as it was their constitutional right.
He also warned them against attempts to frustrate the reforms.
“I agree, why should we stop them from running? Kenya is a democracy, let them run if they messed they will be rejected by the farmers and if they did a good job they will be re-elected,” Gachagua said on Friday.
New elections are set to be held beginning in April next year in various factories.
The Deputy President at the same time called on the current directors to cooperate with the government in the ongoing reforms process.
“Msilete kichwa ati hii ni private, hakuna,hii ni mali ya wananchi na ni lazima tukubaliane tutaketi chini na nyinyi tukubaliane,” he said.
The government is pushing for radical reforms in the tea sector even as it bets on the changes to make the cash crop well paying for farmers.
Crop development principal secretary Kello Harsama said the government has mapped all the tea farmers under KTDA.
Harsama said they have already started supplying fertilisers to 630,000 farmers in KTDA and some 320,000 who supply their green leaves to private factories both in Bomet and Kericho.
