Agony for wives of tea farmers as bonuses arrive

Perpetual* is a troubled woman. Evening is approaching and her husband is not yet home.

A farmer’s wife in Gionseri, Kisii County, she bade her husband goodbye in the morning as he went to check on the family’s tea bonus from the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA).

Her family’s two-acre farm is expected to raise a Sh30,000 bonus at the end of the month.

Ordinarily, this money should be enough to clear the school fees of her firstborn son now studying in secondary school or be used for some other worthwhile purpose.

“Instead of using the money on our family’s needs, my husband goes missing for a few days as soon as he receives the bonus,” she says.

Perpetual says this is not the first time it will occur, saying it is an established pattern in the home.

“It is always like this whenever the bonus payment period arrives. He must take off for a few days and enjoy a large part of it in Kisii town nightclubs,” says the mother of five.

Her plight is due to the annual increase in prostitution in tea-farming counties.

Kisii, Nyamira and Bomet counties expect to receive a boon this week, and that has seen a rise in skimpily-dressed visitors in the evenings.

Given KTDA’s recent announcement that this year’s bonuses will be the highest in five years, a number of twilight girls have trooped to the two regions, ready to have a share from men who receive their windfall.

As a result, there are many wives facing Perpetual’s fate.

A housewife in Bomet, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals, says she only prays that her husband gets the cash and remains at home to meet the family’s financial obligations.

“In most cases, I am in the farm plucking tea but when the money comes, my husband, being the head of the family, wants to enjoy what he did not sow just because the farm is his,” she said.

Fanice*, another distressed farmer’s wife, speaks of the endless fights that characterise her home over the bonus period.

“My husband seems determined not to change. Whenever he receives the bonus, it’s like a demon takes possession of him,” says Fanice, a resident of Mwongori in Nyamira County.

BE RESPONSIBLE

She says her spouse will always start arguments over trivial matters when the bonus season arrives, which culminates in her receiving a serious beating.

Interestingly, the twilight girls who have descended into the two neighbouring counties appear to have migrated from Narok, where farmers have recently harvested wheat.

A commercial sex worker in Bomet said she expects to reap Sh500,000 in 10 days in the South Rift town.

In Kisii, a call-girl said she and her “colleagues” have learnt to study cash flows in various urban centres across Kenya.

“Sometimes the tip-off comes from one of my farmer customers who gives me a call,” she says.

Satellite shopping centres on the Kisii-Kilgoris highway like Itumbe, Kiogoro, Magena and even far-away towns like Lolgorien are likely places for these farmers looking to hide from wives and children as they enjoy the company of twilight girls.

Care Volunteers In Partnership — Kenya Chapter (Cavip-K), an organisation dedicated to improving the economic wellbeing of farmers, acknowledges there is a problem.

Cavip’s communications director Oyugi Nyamache says there is a need to educate farmers in the area on prudent financial management as well as incorporating responsible sexual behaviour.

“While some go for the twilight girls, others end up marrying several wives and having concubines, which impoverishes their families and exposes them to sexually transmitted infections,” Mr Nyamache says.

In Bomet, Governor Isaac Ruto and County Commissioner Bernard Leparmarai have been appealing to farmers to invest their earnings on gainful ventures rather than engage in destructive leisure activities.