Meru County, factories reach agreement on road cess management

Paul Ringera, director of KTDA in the greater Meru region addressing press at imenti tea factory. [Patrick Muthuri/Standard]

The county government and tea factories have agreed to hand over control of a levy charged on the crop to road maintenance committees.

The Kenya Tea Development Agency Meru Zone boss, Paul Ringera, praised Governor Kiraitu Murungi for being open-minded about the spending of tea cess, which has caused friction between county governments and tea farmers countrywide.

Very receptive

“We held a successful meeting with the governor and he was very receptive about our views on managing the cess, agreeing that the money be handed over to road management committees in each factory to help ease the access of tea from farms,” Mr Ringera said in Meru town yesterday.

He added that a final meeting between the county and tea factory directors would be held on May 18 to work out the finer details on sharing the cess kitty.

Access roads in tea growing areas are suffering due to the heavy rains.