Kericho Senator Aaron Cheruiyot pointed accusatory fingers at President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto over what he claimed was a false promise to the residents of Nyamira.
The Standard reported on Tuesday, September 24, that while addressing mourners during the burial of businessman Ongenyo Omogeni, he claimed that Uhuru and Ruto had failed tea farmers from the region.
He alleged that the duo announced a plan to set up a presidential committee to find out what was ailing the tea sector three years ago, but never followed up on the report thereafter.
"In 2016, the president commissioned a task force to find solve issues bedeviling tea farming in the country and up to now, we are yet to see the results of the report which had brought some false hopes to farmers," he claimed.
Cheruiyot, who is also the chair of the parliamentary caucus of tea-growing zones in the Senate, urged interior CS Fred Matiang'i to put Agriculture CS Mwangi Kiunjuri to task over the failure to act on the report.
"Mr. Matiang' i, as you convene the Cabinet meeting this week, ensure you remind Kiunjuri about a report we gave him to ratify," he stated.
This report, in his opinion, was supposed to bring to an end the woes that the tea farmers are facing in the country.
His accusations came in the backdrop of the September 22,2019 announcement of the newly approved payment rate to farmers supplying small-holder tea companies under the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA). The tea growers complained that the rates were a far cry from what they received in 2018.
The latest approved figures show that Eberege and Ogembo factories in the Kisii and Nyamira regions will pay Ksh 12.30 per kilogram, while farmers in Kiamokama and Rianyamwamu are set to get Ksh 11.50 per kilogram of green leaf delivered between July 1, 2018, and June 30, 2019.
These rates are in sharp contrast with what tea farmers in the Mt. Kenya and the Rift Valley region are set to receive.
Farmers in the west of the Rift Valley tea-growing regions are set to receive Ksh 20 from Rorok, Kapset, Boito, Kobel, Mogogosiek, Liten, Chelal, Toror, and Tegat tea factories.
In the Mt Kenya region, the best factories in bonus payout are Rukiriri (Ksh 39.20), Mununga (Ksh 37.50), Ngeere (Ksh 37.15), Gacharage (Ksh 37.10), Makomboki (Ksh 36.50), Kangaita (Ksh 36.05), Imenti (Ksh 36).
