Senator’s ‘chai campaign’ stirs hope in tea farmers

For nominated senator Joy Gwendo, tea is everything. That is why she is spearheading a campaign for tea, which starts today in Kericho with a tea marathon, expected to have more than a thousand participants in the various categories.

From family races to competitive ones, the marathon, strategically in the land of tea, Kericho, is expected to host more than 1,000 tea enthusiasts. And according to Gwendo, this is just but the first in a list of activities scheduled to promote tea consumption locally.

The senator tells Smart Harvest her target is the younger generation, in a large campaign called ‘Tea for Health’.

“This campaign is geared towards promoting tea consumption amongst the young people and other Kenyans,” she says.

“We are placing tea as a health drink that can be consumed any time of the day thus the slogan being used for the campaign is Tea for health.... Anytime is tea time,” says Gwendo.

The good thing is that this campaign also has farmers in mind.

“For the farmer, he plants tea so that once ready it’s consumed on a Kenyan table or a table anywhere in this world. Thus this promotion is good news to the farmer as the more the consumers, the fatter the pockets and everyone is happy,” says Gwendo.

“Once the fruits of this drive start to trickle in, farmers will not have to uproot their crop anymore because tea will be on demand,” she says.

Gwendo says once tea awareness is created positively, the aim will be to increase consumption locally.

According to her, she envisions a time when everyone asks for tea anywhere anytime.

“I envision a time when women will be carrying tea bags in their handbags like they do with make up,” she says with a chuckle.

Tea festival

Her campaign is a partnership with the newly formed Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Authority (AFFA) that now hosts the Tea Directorate.

One of their key mandates is to address issues of farmers and to empower them to improve on production. The campaign, Gwendo says, is just a beginning of a series initiatives that the authority is engaging in as a support to tea farmers and everybody in the value chain.

“There are so many problems bedeviling the tea sector but I am positive that with the new Tea Directorate, things will start to look up. Uprooting of tea and bad returns will be a thing of the past,” she says.

In an effort to boost tea farmers, she says AFFA holds regular field days to engage with farmers and also see better ways of tea production.

And it is no coincidence that the marathon is being held in Kericho, but a well-oiled strategy according to the senator.

“The marathon is being held in Kericho solely because the region is the land of world class premium tea and world class athletes. Part of the race will be in the farms, so most definitely it will involve the farmers,” says Gwendo.

After the marathon, Gwendo says there is a long list of promotional activities lined up.

The activities include a tea recipe competition which will then lead to a tea festival.

“At the festival we will taste the different recipes and also have Kenyans enjoy worlds premium tea,” says Gwendo.

However, her campaign does not touch on policy. Hers, she says, targets consumption of tea.

“AFFA Tea Directorate is in the process of working on a policy that will regulate tea prices as well as ensure that the various issues farmers have are looked into,” she says.