Munya orders former tea factory directors to hand over records

DISPUTE: All former directors of tea factories affiliated to Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) have up to the end of this week to surrender all relevant documents and reports to the new managers to guarantee smooth takeover.

Two line ministries –Interior and Agriculture have teamed up to ensure enforcement of the CR 12 registration of the newly elected boards.

This, the ministries argue, is meant to facilitate smooth leadership change of the factories from the former boards.

“With immediate effect, security agencies will facilitate enforcement of the CR 12 registration of the newly elected boards.

The enforcement process will entail various actions,” said Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya during a meeting with newly elected tea factory directors.

The CS told the former directors to keep off the tea factories premises and should be prevented from undertaking any activities in the factory or engaging tea farmers in any way as directors.   

And the newly elected directors to be given access to all properties of their respective tea factories.

Munya added: “The past directors should surrender the company’s seal and other instruments of ownership to the newly appointed Company Secretary and avail a register of fixed assets and documents of title”.

The ex-directors, he added, ought to provide a status report on all bank accounts, current signatories and signed forms for change of signatories and minutes of the last board meeting.

For the new directors to assume leadership mantle without hitches the old managers have to provide financial reports for the last nine months as at end of March 2021 indicating both performance and position of the tea factory. 

They also need to provide an inventory report indicating stocks at the factory on transits and in all warehouses.

Denied access

The directive by the minister comes one month after elections of new directors to manage the factories.

However, in some factories, employees seconded by the KTDA Management Services to the factories have been denying the new directors access.

Should the current management fail to co-operate, Munya and his Interior counterpart Fred Matiang’i urged the new directors to pursue various options.  

The directors, they said should engage an experienced and capable person to oversee production if the production manager is unavailable and involve an alternative service provider for security services.

To build the capacity of the newly elected boards, Munya directed Tea Board of Kenya to immediately commence a programme to sensitise the boards on the ongoing tea reforms.