A fresh tussle has ensued in the Coffee industry after a section of  stakeholders were locked out of a consultative meeting chaired by Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya inNairobi.

A public participation forum organised by sector players saw some of the stakeholders denied access to the premises further exacerbating the tea farmers’ woes with the Cabinet Secretary.

Munya held a meeting with stakeholders to deliberate on the proposed Crops General Amendments Regulations of 2022 sponsored by the Agriculture and Food Authority in relation to coffee regulations and the Capital Markets Coffee exchange regulations of 2020.

“We were told to submit our recommendations ahead of the meeting today but upon reading what we wanted we were barred from the meeting,” said Chairman of the National Coffee Cooperative Union Francis Ngone (pictured, centre). Representatives of over 700,000 coffee farmers from all over the country were denied entry into the public participation forum which they say amounts to frustrating coffee reforms that have so far been made. Farmers who had travelled as far as Kipkelion and Murang’a said they were barred from accessing the meeting under direct instructions from Munya whom they accused of sidelining them.

“We travelled very early from different parts of the country. However, when we got here they told us they already had a list, the people in there who are purporting to be farmers are not stakeholders. There is no public participation. We have been locked yet we are the coffee farmers,” Ngone said.

Proposed reforms

Munya has been in a long tussle with some of the coffee sector players over the proposed reforms.

Last week. the CS was on the receiving end after Kenya Coffee and Tea Sector lobby accused him of “politicising” the reforms.

There has also been a push and pull between Munya, coffee farmers and the Senate Committee on Agriculture.

The Committee had last year  accused the CS of playing politics in the coffee industry thus frustrating reforms.