Kiambu farmers, leader welcome Tea bill passage

REFORMS: A  Member of Parliament and farmers from Kiambu County have welcomed the passage of a bill seeking to revitalise the tea sub-sector after years of dwindling returns.

Thika MP Patrick Wainaina termed the draft law as heaven-sent, saying it will help revive the embattled Tea Board of Kenya and regulate the sector’s market.

He said the bill sponsored by Kericho Senator Aaron Cheruiyot has  amendments that will largely favour the small-scale farmers as it seeks to straighten tea management in the country.

“This is one of the best bills as it has addressed the most pertinent issues, among them marketing and auction.

These are the issues that we wanted to see. If tea is not purchased in the auction, farmers should be allowed to keep it,” said Wainaina.

If President Uhuru Kenyatta gives the bill a nod, the legislator noted, tea brokers, buyers and auction controllers will be compelled to pay the proceeds of tea sales within 14 days, which translates into farmers paying 50 per cent of the sales to farmers without delay.

Tea billions

Speaking at Munyu village in his Constituency, Wainaina said through  the bill, Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) will no longer have access to the tea billions since the money will now be controlled at the grassroot level.

Among other amendments, the new legislation exempts management agents such as KTDA from sitting at the Tea Board.

Farmers from the county have also hailed the proposed law as long overdue, saying that over the last 10 years, the weak trend in the export price of their tea produce has been giving them zero returns.

“While we understand that the export price problem is as a result of worldwide tea export increases which has occurred more rapidly than world consumption, we still hold that poor management and upsurge in cartels in the industry as major factors driving us to gain little from our hard work,” James Wanyoike, a tea farmer from Gatundu North said.–Mathew Ndung’u