Agriculture CS Peter Munya has accused Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) of using a lot of money with lawyers at the expense of tea farmers.
“Like the Wall Street fat cats who paid themselves generous bonuses when the 2008 financial crisis was impoverishing borrowers, KTDA has been on a binge to enrich lawyers even as farmers fall below the poverty line. The government will not allow that to remain the case,” says Munya.
The CS says that the total payout to the growers declined from Kshs 58.76 per kg of Greenleaf in 2016/17 to Kshs 52.83 in 2017/18 to Kshs 41.27 in 2018/19 and Kshs 36.64 in 2019/20.
“KTDA has three goals, exploit small-holder tea farmers, remain opaque and be unaccountable,” he adds
