Flower firms strive to shed off old image with community projects
Workers in a flower farm. File
For a man who dropped out of formal education at primary school level, Peter Mauchia is quick to cite his permanent employment at a flower farm on Naivasha’s South Lake Road among his earthly blessings.
An attendant at a flower farm’s pump station, Mr Mauchia is grateful that the company he joined in early 1980s has provided him with a two-roomed house and free medical care among other benefits.
“My monthly pay does not match personal expectations, but I have stayed around all these years because with my (modest) education, I don’t think I can get better terms anywhere,” said Mr Mauchia from western province.
“From this job, I am currently paying fees for my two children in secondary school and I intend to stay around until my last born who is in primary school is through with his education,” said the father of five who spends his free time in his bicycle taxi business to earn extra income.
Rocky relationship
Mr Mauchia’s attitude is a rare one, almost unknown in Kenya’s horticultural hub of Naivasha where a rift had grown between the workers and society and the farm managers.
The flower farms made headlines for recurrent workers’ protests over poor pay and dumping of chemicals into water bodies, but the face of the horticultural labour force is changing.
Following the new labour laws more employers are taking a stand to give the workers better benefits.
Officials of the Kenya Plantations and Agricultural Workers Union (KPAWU) who talked to Business Daily in Naivasha say there is progress.
“Some farms have implemented agreements reached with KPAWU such as providing workers with means of transport and safety gears, but issues such as poor pay, summary dismissals and poor safety standards are still common in most farms,” said Peter Otieno, a KPAWU representative based in Naivasha.
At most of the flowers farms, the private security guards are under strict orders to keep away visitors, especially the prying journalists frequently hover around the premises in search of information.
“To these growers, any unknown person can only have a bad intention,” says Peterson Njenga, a tout who worked at one of the farms on the South Lake Road.
At all the farms that the Business Daily managed to visit last week, the private security guards manning the gates said they were under strict instruction to keep away all visitors without prior appointments.
This is in sharp contrast to other companies where the normal practice is that external parties seeking contact with the firm are received politely by receptionists who handle them on case-by-case basis, each time confirming with intended hosts whether they are willing to meet their visitors.
While the presence of many flower farms is closely associated with improved transport and social infrastructure, most residents of Naivasha didn’t feel like part of these developments.
But this is changing as more residents warm to the flower farms following their involvement in community projects.
The horticultural farms have one good thing to show as Sh70 billion-a-year export trade begins to trickle down to the local residents.
Regulate themselves
The Naivasha growers have gone big into the social welfare programmes, funding community projects and effectively extending their investment benefits to cover non-workers in a town known for the wide gap that exists between the lower and upper income earners.
Players in the multi-billion shilling sector who for many years have fought so hard to be allowed by the government to regulate themselves say the evolving culture is what the industry’s future face looks like. It all began four years ago when the Bangalore headquartered Karuturi Global Limited bought the 150 – hectares Sher Agencies from its Dutch owners for Sh6 billion and opened its health facility to the public.
Today, the Karuturi Hospital —which is bigger in scope than the Naivasha District Hospital— is a popular referral facility, offering cheaper medical services in comparison to private hospitals located in the area.
“Apart from free monthly surgical camps, this hospital provides free medical services to 3,000 staff members while close to 1,000 who visit from outside every month are asked to pay minimal charges on our heavy subsidises,” the CEO Karuturi Nagesh says of the facility that runs both inpatient and outpatient services
Naivasha Municipal officials acknowledge the value of the new health facility.
“Our social department is now working closely with the farms to deliver improved services to the residents,” said Town Clerk Felix Olwero.
In yet another instance that sharply contrasts the farms’ reclusive nature, Karuturi has lately been in the news, battling a legal suit filed by Serah Nyambura, proprietor of the neighbouring Crayfish Camp. She has sought orders to stop Karuturi Sport Department from turning the ground sandwiched between the two into a “public ground.”
Ms Nyambura wants the court’s intervention to stop the company together with Football Kenya Ltd and Multichoice Kenya from airing live matches from the Karuturi Stadium.
The new found love between the flower farms and their immediate society marks a radical turning point for an industry that just months ago bore the blame for social ills that is plaguing Naivasha town.
Social amenities
“We value their contribution in the development of this town and acknowledge that most of the problems that we used to have with them could easily be resolved through dialogue,” Naivasha Mayor Paul Karanja said.
The fresh produce investors have been accused of overstretching their social amenities by attracting semi-skilled job seekers who later turn to crime after failing to secure jobs.
In the past, they have also been accused of blocking animal corridors and polluting Lake Naivasha— a Ramsar site and a wetland of international importance—with farm chemicals.
Of note is the long-running dispute over the payment of cess. For a long time, the farms had refused to pay the one per cent of their annual production as cess to the local authority, saying the 30 per cent corporate tax that they pay annually to Kenya Revenue Authority was enough.
The farms, citing increased cost of operations moved to court in 2007 to stop the council from ever forcing them to produce their production records for the purpose of assessing their outstanding cess.
While the local government Act fixes cess at one per cent of a farm’s total production, the foes-turned-friends have since reached an out of court settlement where the farms now pay cess at lower than statutory rate.
“We signed a deal with the council where our members have been paying Sh2 per year per square meter of cultivated area of flower production since April 2009,” said Joseph Kariuki, an executive officer at the Lake Naivasha Growers Group , the lobby for the horticultural farms operating in Naivasha.
This contribution, now totalling Sh25 million has gone into building schools, setting up water projects and in buying land for setting up a market at the town’s sprawling Karagita estate.
Immigrant workers
Mr Kariuki said that money has also been spent in building an early childhood development centre and purchase of a garbage collection truck for use by the council.
In the aftermath of the 2008 post election violence which mostly targeted immigrant workers, flower farms joined hands in support of the victims.
While these social programmes could be seen as modest, especially when weighed against the Sh70 billion that horticultural sector earns from exports annually, they represent charitable face of the farms that Naivasha residents are not used to.
For communities around Naivasha town, this truce is a timely move that will allow the town – which falls under Nakuru County - to ring fence its investors as the country adopts the devolved system of governance envisaged in the new constitution.
“To be able to attract new investors into your county, you have to prove to external parties that the existing ones are happy,” said Mr Karanja.
