Anger as tea farmers miss their bonuses

Tea farmers in Nyeri now fear that hard times could be ahead after they missed their mini-bonus last month.

Tea is one of the pillars of the county’s economy. Many farmers interviewed expressed disappointment and threatened to boycott picking their tea. Others said they would paralyse operations in their zones.

Early this week, the Kenya Union of Small-scale Tea Owners (Kusto) and Mount Kenya Region Tea Farmers group strongly criticised Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) for not giving farmers the bonus.

The two groups have called for the immediate disbandment of the KTDA board over what they termed as gross inefficiencies.

Several weeks ago, KTDA told farmers in tea growing areas to prepare for reduced earnings for the 2013/14 season. This was attributed to a decline in global prices of tea and the need to maintain cash flow in the sector.

The second bonus is usually paid between October and November.

Kusto national vice chairman Dismas Mbaria said the KTDA board must be removed to pave way for a fresh team that “has the interest of farmers at heart”.

so that a fresh team which has the interest of the farmers at heart can be put in place, with similar views being expressed by Mt Kenya Region Tea Farmers Coordinator Linus Chege Maina.

They said lack of mini-bonus has caused serious repercussions to most farmers who depend on the crops returns to sustain their families.

FARMERS BOYCOTT

They said farmers will be forced to seek loans from commercial banks, despite the high interest rates charged by the institutions.

Farmers do get a monthly payment of Sh14 per Kg of green tea leaves which cannot sustain them and presence of a mini-bonus by the end of April comes in handy in sustaining them.

By boycotting picking tea, this might have adverse effects on tea production since there will be a decline.

Last week, some tea farmers in Tetu and Othaya made good their threats and boycotted picking their crop vowing to continue with their strike until they get the mini-bonus.

The farmers move followed claims that some factories in part of Mt Kenya region had received their mini-bonus despite an announcement by the tea agency that they would not receive the payments.

“As far as they tell us the prices are down, we don’t believe that. What our region manager told us is that the entire Kenya, all KTDA managed tea factories will not receive mini-bonus,” said a farmers from Gathuthi Tea Factory in Tetu, Hezekiah Waithanji.

Mr Waithanji who is an elected centre committee member representing Waritia tea buying centre said they later realised that some factories had offered their farmers mini-bonus saying that they were not happy about it.

The farmers singled out Ragati and Ndima tea factories both from the region as some of the factories whose farmers have received their mini-bonus.

“We should all be treated equally,” said Mr Waithanji.

According to the farmers, the mini-bonus aids them in clearing debts taken during the tea growing cycles; arrears which they said will be difficult to clear if they don’t get their mini-bonus.

“Our children risks being sent back home for not clearing school fees arrears, because this year we have not been paid mini-bonus,” said Lucy Wangari.

Farmers said the tea agency foresaw the situation and ought to have informed them in advance that they would miss a mini-bonus so that they could plan and budget for the eventuality.

However, some feel that boycotting tea picking will add misery to their already miserable lives, since the longer the tea stays in the farm, the lower the quality and this will translate to double loss to the farmer.