Workers harvest pyrethrum at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (Kalro) in Molo, Nakuru County on August 06, 2021. PHOTO | JOHN NJOROGE | NMG
In its heyday, the Pyrethrum Processing Company of Kenya (PPCK) was a hive of activity, producing what was earning Kenya billions of shillings in foreign exchange.
Today, the firm represents pain for its former workers — now pensioners waiting for their retirement dues that have been nothing more than a promise for more than a decade.
The decline of pyrethrum production in Kenya has left in its wake a trail of pain for players across its value chain, from the thousands of farmers who diligently tilled the crop for decades to workers and retirees facing a bleak future.
In its heyday, the Pyrethrum Processing Company of Kenya (PPCK) was a hive of activity, producing what was earning Kenya billions of shillings in foreign exchange.
Today, the firm represents pain for its former workers — now pensioners waiting for their retirement dues that have been nothing more than a promise for more than a decade.
The more than 300 pensioners are owed dues amounting to more than Sh2 billion.
Nearly 70 retirees have died without getting a cent of their dues from their years at the company, said Mr Harun Tinga, the pensioners' spokesperson.
10-year wait
Dozens others are ailing and in need of money for medical care, with some in various hospitals across the country.
"Hardly a month passes without hearing some bad news. If it's not the death of a colleague then it's hospitalisation. This problem of delayed pension is a sad scenario that the government should address and give priority to resolve,” says Mr Tinga.
“It's now more than a decade since we received our last payment. Sadly, the government which is supposed to intervene is acting as a bystander even when the High Court has ruled that we should be paid our pending dues.”
The PPCK used to process the crop once referred to as the black gold of Kenya, one which earned the country more than Sh10 billion in foreign exchange a year, compared to just Sh57 million today.
Kenya controlled more than 90 percent of the world market in the 1990s, compared only two percent today with production falling from 235 tonnes in 1993 to less than 0.3 tonnes.
The Pyrethrum Board of Kenya Staff Superannuation Scheme fell into financial problems in 2012 in what was attributed to mismanagement by the sponsors.
After four years of non-payment of dues, the court ruled that the scheme be wound up and assets liquidated to provide funds to pay pensioners.
However, the liquidation has stalled even as the cash-strapped company continues to cling to underused land worth Sh4 billion that could be disposed of and save the suffering pensioners from further agony.
The frustrated pensioners are concerned that the current board of PPCK is not prioritising their problem, even as it works to revive the ailing sub-sector.
Many farmers in 18 pyrethrum-growing counties want to plant the cash crop but have no planting materials.
Reviving production
The pensioners now want the board to sell some of the non-core assets like land, rental houses in various estates in Nakuru to offset the company’s debt and clear other pending dues such as the pension arrears, while also providing farmers with planting material to revive production.
The board, chaired by George Wachira, took over seven months ago.
The overdue payments are one of several debts the firm owes countless parties, with Mr Wachira saying that a plan to offset them was agreed with the Ministry of Agriculture, which initiated a process for the Cabinet to authorise related funding.
“PPCK has checked and confirmed that a Cabinet memo was drafted by the ministry and endorsed by a Committee of Principal Secretaries and is now with the Treasury, which will organise for further review and approval," said Mr Wachira.
Selling property
He added the board is considering alternative options, including selling some of the company’s property to pay the pensioners.
"This is a matter we're pursuing but it's subject to clearance from the government, which is the main shareholder of the PPCK,” said Mr Wachira.
PPCK owns prime properties, including 865 acres in Oljoro Orok in Nyandarua County and houses in Nakuru’s up-market Milimani Estate and other parts of the town.
The company also owns commercial buildings in Nairobi, go-downs in Nakuru town and land in Olenguruone, Kisii, Bomet, Meru, and Bungoma.
Pyrethrum Processing Company of Kenya (PPCK) workers at the Nakuru factory in the Industrial Area on July 31, 2017. PHOTO | FRANCIS MUREITHI | NMG
It jointly holds these properties spread in all the 18 pyrethrum-growing counties with the Agricultural Food Authority (AFA).
The government has promised in the past that the problems of the pyrethrum sub-sector will be resolved, with little in the way of actual action.
Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya, while on a visit to the Nakuru pyrethrum factory in October, announced a Sh500 million revival plan and assured the pensioners the government would clear their dues, including the statutory deductions and sacco contributions.
However, he did not give the timelines when the money will be released, pushing the players into more waiting.
Non-core assets
The Treasury has in the past dilly-dallied in pumping in more money to PPCK and in one of its advisory opinion argued that the State agency should sell some non-core assets to specifically clear this haul of dues.
Previous attempts to liquidate the assets of the defunct Pyrethrum Board of Kenya (PBK) have faced several legal technicalities relating to the owners, who are farmers.
Besides, PBK is encumbered by several legal cases which have put a caveat on several properties that may be useful in offsetting the mounting arrears.
