Pay coffee farmers now, ward reps tell county

A coffee farmer in Nyeri County. FILE PHOTO |

What you need to know:

  • The law requires that payment be made to farmers within 14 days after sale, according to County Assembly Majority Leader Anthony Kibuu.
  • The government had promised that it would have sold all the coffee by June 30.

Ward representatives have asked the Nyeri County government to pay coffee growers immediately after it announced it had sold all the produce delivered to Sagana Mills.

The members of the Nyeri County Assembly blamed the devolved government for delaying payment to farmers and accused it of selling the coffee at a price lower than what it had promised.

County Assembly Majority Leader Anthony Kibuu and Chairman of the Assembly Agriculture committee James Kibira urged the county government to pay the farmers promptly.

They threatened to rally farmers to demand their dues, which they said was long overdue.

Mr Kibuu on Monday said he was seeking a permit to hold a meeting with the farmers to decide the next course of action.

“The farmers were promised payment by end of June. Now we are going into August and still they have not been paid.”

The Majority Leader said the county government promised farmers Sh130 per kilo, but the recent sale only fetched Sh1.6 billion, way below the promised amount.

The law requires that payment be made to farmers within 14 days after sale, according to the assembly official.

Mr Kibuu said he feared that the money may have been deposited in an individual’s account and was accruing interest.

He demanded to be told where the interest, which he said would be in millions, would be taken.

Mr Kibira said farmers who defied a proposal by Governor Nderitu Gachagua to deliver coffee to Sagana Mills had obtained good prices.

According to a report which he tabled in the County Assembly on July 3, the county government sold all the coffee that was milled at Sagana through the Nairobi auction, for Sh1.7 billion.

Mr Kibira said the produce was sold after prices had gone down and farmers could have earned a better price had it been sold in March.

“In March, the auction price was very high. Why did the county government hoard the coffee until much later?

“We are not compromising. We want the farmers paid the prices promised by the government.”

OVERSEAS BUYERS

On July 10, Nyeri County Executive Committee Member for Trade, Industrialisation and Investment Stanley Miano said all coffee delivered to Sagana had been sold to buyers overseas.

He said some of the coffee had been sold after the Nairobi Coffee Auction closed on June 17.

“There is no more coffee at Sagana Mills. We’ve finished selling and are now working on modalities of shipping the coffee to respective buyers abroad,” he said.

However, the Trade executive did not disclose the quantity sold and the value obtained.

He said different buyers bought different grades and the figures varied.

In May, farmers who had agreed to the county government’s proposal to sell their coffee under one roof at Sagana received an advance payment of Sh10 per kilogramme.

The government had promised that it would have sold all the coffee by June 30.