Tea plantation workers operate a tea picking machine at Nandi Hills in Nandi County. Tea farmers are calling on county governments not to increase land rates. [Kevin Tunoi, Standard]
A section of tea farmers in North Rift has rejected the push by the counties to increase land rates.
The farmers claimed the recent clamour by county governments to raise rates from Sh100 to Sh10,000 per acre was exorbitant and will negatively affect multinational tea companies, which offer employment to many locals.
Nandi-based Siret tea company opposed the proposal, saying it will undermine the economic status of hundreds of people, who depend on the tea sector in Nandi, Bomet and Kericho counties.
- How to handle chicken before slaughter
- Role of water in animal health and productivity
- 9 causes of decreased egg production in flock
- In Kenya, livestock farming stands as a testament to tradition and resilience
Wilson Tuwei, the Siret company chair, accused the counties of sidelining the farmers in the legislation process, saying that the reviewing of lands rates threaten to kill investment in the tea sector.
"Already, tea products are highly taxed and if this proposed rate increase succeeds, thousands of small-scale tea farmers will be affected. Multinational companies are the major buyers of tea and the policy would bring the companies to their knees," he said.
Tuwei condemned plans by county assemblies to increase land levies in order to raise local revenue, saying the hike will negatively affect the sector, which is still reeling from Covid-19 economic shocks.
Pauline Too, one of the directors Siret, said the national and county governments should prioritise maintenance of roads to help farmers access to markets.
"We want leaders to support the tea sector by scouting for the international markets to increase the volume of exports. This would help to sustain and revive the tea sector that had been abandoned for long," she said during the company’s 15th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Nandi Hills, .
Last week, Uasin Gishu Governor Jackson Mandago and his Nandi counterpart, Stephen Sang, claimed that counties have lost billions of shillings due to outdated valuation rolls.
“We have not seen significant development in the tea-growing zones. The multinational companies have failed to improve the infrastructure, and it is our mandate as the county to make the tea firms accountable,” Sang said.
Governor Mandago claimed the national government has derailed a bid by counties to safeguard local resources to the benefit of local communities.
In the bid to increase revenues, some counties have introduced new rates targeting multinational tea companies.
The MCAs in Nandi through Finance Act 2019 had approved an increase in land rates before the same was quashed by the court last year.
Multinational tea companies in Kericho sit on 500,000 acres.
