Bill Sets Up KTDA for Major Changes

A new bill aimed at reforming the tea sector and giving farmers more say in decision making, among other radical reforms, is set to be tabled in Parliament.

The Bill proposes Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) to be reverted to its old status of Authority as the industry regulator.

The Kenya Tea Development Authority Bill 2018, fronted by Gem MP Elisha Odhiambo, aims at creating a new framework to ensure inclusive growth and development for the tea industry by increasing revenues for farmers and streamlining management.

[caption caption="Gem MP Elisha Odhiambo"][/caption]

The change of KTDA to an agency, he argues, weakened supervision of the agency’s management by farmers who own the tea factories, leading to major governance compromises that have led to exploitation of farmers through payment of levies and fees and loss of funds through inflated project costs.

The bill also cites numerous cases of mismanagement, loss of money in collapsed banks, conflicts of interest, contempt of court cases as well as fraud and misappropriation of farmers’ money.

A Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report shows 50 percent of smallholder tea farmers in the country live below the poverty line despite privatization promising better life and earnings for them.

As the farmers wallow in poverty, KTDA is putting up a multi-billion highrise building in Nairobi city center on Koinange Street which many feel may not immediately benefit the suffering tea farmers.

“What’s happening in the tea sector is a major rip-off that must be brought to an end through proper and well thought-out streamlining of the management and that can only be achieved through the establishment of an authority which will be answerable to Parliament in its operations,” states Mr Odhiambo.

To streamline tea operations, the Government in 2015 formed a task force on the tea industry, which made radical recommendations on turning around the sector.

Among them was reforming KTDA's governance model to deal with conflict of interests where directors of tea factories also sit at KTDA and where procurement is armtwisted to have them also supply the organization various services and goods often at inflated costs.

The new Bill comes as the government continues to hold onto the Taskforce Report on tea industry. The task force, chaired by Mr Kagiri Kamatu, came up with radical proposals that could have changed the way the highest export-earning industry operates.

Among its proposals was the restructuring of KTDA and review of its contracts with farmers; reduction of levies and the establishment of a regulator for the industry, years after a similar body was scrapped.

[caption caption="KTDA logo"][/caption]