Deputy president Rigathi Gachagua has convened a meeting on Wednesday with directors of Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) across the country to deliberate on ways of entrenching reforms in the tea subsector.
Mr Gachagua said the ongoing reforms in the tea sub-sector have resulted in more bonuses this year, one of the highest farmers have received in recent times.
“The reforms I have been pushing with governors, Members of Parliament and other stakeholders are bearing fruit. Our farmers have earned high bonuses, which they have not received for many years. I will meet with the directors from across the country to agree on the way forward in firming up and sustaining the reforms,” the Deputy President said during a church service at Kegere PCEA in Nyeri County.
Mr Gachagua said the ongoing reforms, which commenced after the July Tea Conference in Kericho County will not stop, adding that the farmer must earn what they deserve.
After the Conference in Kericho, the Deputy President has been engaging various stakeholders in the tea subsector for collective decisions on institutionalising the reforms through legal, policy, and regulative measures.
Tea factories across the county in this year’s bonuses offered farmers higher pay, with even the lowest performers registering a rise from the previous earnings. Factories announced payments of over Sh55 per kilo while low performers reached Sh30 per kilo.
The Deputy President maintained that the Ruto Administration remains focused on delivering reforms in tea, coffee, dairy and other subsectors in agriculture for the farmers to earn what they deserve through, among other interventions, removal of cartels and brokers from the value chains.
Mr Gachagua says reforms in the coffee sub sector are on course despite resistance from the cartels and brokers.
“The cartels are too entrenched. They buy coffee at throw away prices and sell in foreign countries exorbitantly; they don’t tell us how much. The changes are on course. Amendment of the law will be tabled in Parliament soon. It proposes, among others, if you are a coffee miller, you cannot be a marketer or a seller. It is one man, one job,” said the Deputy President.
He asked Members of Parliament to support the amendment to uplift farmers through more money in their pockets.
One of the reforms being fought by the cartel, he said, is the revival of the New KPCU and the Coffee Board of Kenya, which are being turned into farmer-centred institutions.
Mr Gachagua added that the cartels are viciously fighting the reforms.
“They (cartels) have united and are trying to create an artificial crisis and propaganda that because of the reforms, the Kenyan coffee has been boycotted, which is untrue. They are moving across various offices. I urge the farmers to be patient because it is not an easy or simple fight. It is not for the faint hearted,” he explained.
On the dairy subsector, Mr Gachagua said the Government is working on measures that will increase the farm-gate price of milk to Sh60 per litre.
