Nyeri Town Member of Parliament (MP) Maina Mathenge challenged Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua to abolish former Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya's orders that he says have been hurting the coffee sector.
Speaking during an interview with Kameme TV on Thursday, January 19, the UDA MP stated that during Munya’s tenure, cartels were given the power to rule the sector resulting in its deterioration.
The call from Mathenge comes just days after President William Ruto tasked the DP with overseeing coffee and tea reforms.
According to the MP, Gachagua needs to move with speed to degazette the Munya orders if he really wanted to save coffee farmers from the cartels.
“In 2022, coffee regulations were made and gazetted but in all those regulations Munya changed most of the rules and gave cartels power in the coffee business.
We have seen Ruto tasking Gachagua with the same but he will also not achieve anything if the orders are not degazetted,” he challenged.
Mathenge further revealed that even though the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) issued a circular suspending the regulations, it was all mind games as nothing had changed.
“It is not real since the Agriculture CS has not signed a letter to degazette Munya’s regulations. Kenyans will still be receiving the lies they have been experiencing from cartels in the past. This means these cartels are still in the government,” he noted.
Munya gazetted the Crops Act, Coffee General Amended Regulations 2022 that gave the mandate to license coffee millers and marketers to the Coffee Directorate, which is under AFA, sealing the fate of Capital Markets Authority(CMA) as a regulator of spot commodities.
The Capital Markets (Coffee Exchange) Regulations 2020, which were gazetted in April 2019, had given the CMA the mandate to license the coffee exchange and brokers.
On Sunday, January 15 Ruto gave Gachagua fresh orders to expeditiously resolve the crisis in the coffee, tea, and milk sectors.
Speaking during a thanksgiving service in Bomet County, Ruto directed Gachagua to proceed with the task without fear.
While the DP’s great challenge will be getting rid of the cartels and brokers in this sector, he already hit the road with the journey to clean the sector by meeting the Kenya Tea Development Authority (KTDA) directors.
