The look on the faces of members of the Kericho County assembly and tea agency officials after a four-hour meeting on Thursday showed something was amiss.
On the agenda was the now thorny issue of factories seeking divorce from the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) stung by low bonus payment. The MCAs, who later addressed angry farmers outside Governor Paul Chepkwony’s office, supported the farmers’ bid.
Kapsoit MCA Paul Chirchir, Mr Bernard Mutai (Kipchimchim), Mr Erick Koskei (Kapsaos), Mr Cheruiyot Bett (Ainamoi), Mr Collins Beigon (Kipchebor) and Mr Evans Ngeno (Cheborge) said there was need to have subsidiary factories as independent units so that the region can increase its representation at the national board.
“The reason we support the independence of Toror and Rorok is that the eastern Rift region is under represented at the national KTDA board,” said Mr Chirchir.
The push, under the slogan “No separation, no operation”, has seen Toror factory that serves 12,000 farmers in Ainamoi Sub-County closed indefinitely with other affected ones running below capacity. This is after farmers boycotted the supply of the green leaf for processing.
The tea agency has remained tight-lipped even as the deafening noise from growers continues to mount. However, on its official social media page, KTDA said factories, including Toror and Rorok, were fully owned subsidiaries of the parent company and that those seeking to acquire the satellite factories must buy out other shareholders.
“In this case, Tegat and Kapset tea companies respectively own subsidiaries. They belong to all the shareholders of the parent factory,” read the statement.
Toror tea farmers’ spokesman John Chebochok said three years ago, they finished repaying the multimillion shilling commercial loan used to construct the factory, hence Tegat should not continue owning it.
The spokesman accused Tegat’s management of deliberately slashing their bonus amounts, making the factory among the lowest paying.
Out of the 54 KTDA-owned factories in the country, only 40 per cent are in the South Rift, despite the region producing over 60 per cent of the total tea. The Thursday forum ended in a resolution to call a special Annual General Meeting to decide the fate of the subsidiary factories.
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