CS Kagwe announces plans for Agriculture police unit
By Reuben Mwambingu, March 14, 2025Agriculture and Livestock Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has issued a stern warning against tea hawking, blaming the practice for the declining quality of the cash crop.
At the same time, the CS (left) announced that plans are on to form an agricultural police unit, to keep at bay invasion of private tea plantations and factories and deal with other agriculture-related crimes.
“We have a tourist police unit, we also have an ICT police Unit. If you tell a person who has been chasing a gun-runner in Githurai to now come and deal with somebody who has invaded land, that mind-set is completely different. When you tell somebody that there is fake fertiliser being sold somewhere it’s also a different mind-set. This is why there is a discussion to form the unit,” he explained.
Speaking during a high-level consultative meeting at the East African Tea Trade Association (EATTA) auditorium in Mombasa, Kagwe vowed to dismantle the cartels fuelling the illegal trade called hawking.
Red flags
The CS questioned how individuals without tea farms manage to supply tea to factories.
“If you don’t have tea in your farm, where did you get the tea you’re selling? The first step to stopping theft is eliminating the market for stolen tea,” he said.
Kagwe likened the situation to the theft of car cassette players, which became obsolete when all cars came equipped with them.
According to Kagwe, tea stolen in the middle of the night is improperly harvested and thereby compromises Kenya’s global reputation.
“ People cut entire branches, ruining the leaf quality. When such tea reaches the auction, it’s impossible to trace which farmer is responsible,” he added.
Following deliberations at the EATTA meeting, the ministry resolved that all tea producers must adhere to Kenya’s green leaf quality standards. The government will also publish a national quality standard.