By  Boniface Gikandi

Just when the coffee season kicks off, cases of theft are on the rise and farmers claim the Coffee Board of Kenya (CBK) is doing little to stop the vice.

The farmers are now spoiling for the Coffee Act to be amended so that they can have a say on the management of the sector. After being stripped the mandate of electing members of the board, farmers are now fighting for reinstatement of their rights saying they want to be part and parcel of sector.

Farmers from central Kenya have listed their demands saying they will be forced to withhold their produce if the issues will not be addressed.

They are demanding that the ministry of Agriculture stops nominating directors at CBK saying those in charge act without their mandate.

During a farmers meeting recently, representatives led by Francis Njinjo they said directors at the board are strangers to them and yet they claim to present them.

Leaders from cooperatives in Murang’a and other coffee growing areas in the region called MPs to amend Coffee Act and bestow them the responsibility of electing directors a mandate removed from them in 2009.CBK is regulator of the coffee sector.

According to the Coffee Act, the board comprises three people appointed by the Agriculture minister to represent plantation interests and another three representing co-operative societies and smallholders who are producers of coffee.

This is what is making the farmers angry.The minister is allowed by the law to hand pick people to sit in the board without the farmers say. Insiders in the sector divulged to Business Weekly that some of the directors operate a number of companies that have been registered by CBK as coffee dealers.

Some firms are alleged to be involved in milling and while on other hand their subsidiaries registered in other names participate at Nairobi Coffee Auction, where dealers decide prices of the day.

Requirements
On private farms, the farmers point out that CBK has failed to ensure that certain requirements are met before allowing owners to install their pulping machines.

Private farms, they suspect, could be behind massive theft of coffee as CBK has failed to carry out proper investigations to stem the vice.

To the millers, the farmers also argue, the board has failed to carry out audit on deliveries from cooperatives and amount released into the market by each of the millers as way of curbing coffee theft.

“We demand Parliament to make amendments to ensure farmers have total control of the sector as those in the CBK board have their interests,” said Hiram Mwaniki, who heads Thanga-ini Farmers Cooperative Society in Kigumo district.

Coffee theft has been on the rise in the region making farmers apprehensive about delivering their produce to the millers. Between mid and end last year, about 1,216 bags of coffee were reportedly stolen from various factories in the country.

In a report handed to Coffee Board of Kenya (CBK) Managing Director Ms Loise Wanjira Njeru, last year, Sh50 million worth of coffee was stolen in the 2010/2011 production year and she blamed the theft to rising coffee prices that the commodity fetched.

“A 50 Kg bag sold at between $255 and $350 (Sh26, 775 and Sh36, 750). Last year, coffee farmers sold out their produce at between $500 and $1,000) hence the criminals seeing a lucrative business in coffee,” said Njeru.

Farmers who lost coffee to the criminals in addition accused the Coffee Board of Kenya of abetting coffee hawking and exploitation by millers, but Njeru, in a strict warning noted that trading in coffee is guarded by strict laws that require traders to be licensed.

Kahuro district cooperative officer, Mr John Mwangangi, says a lot have been done to educate farmers.

Contact millers
“Ministry of Cooperatives and CBK have come up with a joint mission to ensure cooperative management committees will contract millers,” said Mwangangi.

Samuel Mwau region coffee board inspector in charge of Murang’a region defended CBK saying a lot have been done to save the sector.

“We have held several meeting on coffee laws but some farmers are politicising the issues,” said Mwau.

On Coffee theft, he said CBK has done a lot by liaising with security officers once report of theft are reported.

The recent communication of coffee theft to farmers in Murang’a county and copied to security committees is dated June 4 this year where it outlined nobody is allowed to sell, mill or export coffee unless licensed by CBK.