Mbooni farmers smell the coffee and uproot crop

Makueni farmers inspect a coffee plant in Mbooni. [Stephen Nzioka, Standard]

A section of the over 2,000 farmers in Mbooni, Makueni County, has started uprooting their coffee trees to plant alternative crops due to poor pay and embezzlement of funds at Kikima farmers co-operative society.

The farmers complain that the payments per kilogramme have been going down for the last two years. Last year they were only paid Sh26 (early crops) and Sh19 (late crops).