This is how politics is killing coffee sector

A worker sorts out coffee cherry at Kirimara-Mutanga coffee factory yard, one of the large scale coffee farms in Nyeri County. [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

Kenya: The drama surrounding coffee growing, milling and marketing institutions should be an apt lesson for county and national governments as well as the farmers bearing the brunt of their leaders’ mistakes of commission or omission.

First, it is imperative that leaders do their homework before rushing to offer solutions that would prove more injurious to farmers’ interests than the problems they were meant to solve. Take the case of Nyeri County Governor Nderitu Gachagua’s well-meant initiative to market coffee directly to various global markets. The numerous hurdles encountered along the way should have been foreseen and cleared in advance. The creditors demanding more than Sh850 million should have consulted and an understanding reached on how they would be paid their dues before the decision to take away, what to some of them amounts to their entire livelihood, away. That would have given both sides time to adjust to the new realities on the ground.