Mps accuse KTDA of incompetence, want an ad hoc committee established

Members of Parliament from the West of Rift tea-growing region have decried a drop in bonuses recorded this year and called out the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) over its alleged inefficiency.

The MPs, led by Konoin legislator Brighton Yegon, accused KTDA Management Services of failing to control rising costs of production, including inflated firewood procurement and staff expenses, and said they will table a motion to establish an ad hoc committee.

“As MPs representing the West of Rift tea-growing region, we stand with our farmers. We will table a motion in Parliament seeking to establish an ad hoc committee to do an in-depth inquiry into KTDA's operations. We also call upon the House Business Committee to prioritize the Tea Amendment Bill that is currently tabled for second reading in the National Assembly,” he said during a press conference held in Parliament.

They demanded the immediate transfer of all factory managers who have served for more than three years in a specific tea factory to curb entrenched corruption networks, and the sacking of all those found culpable of corruption.

Kitutu Masaba MP Clive Gisairo said they are focused on setting up an ad hoc committee in Parliament that will delve deeper into the issues and ensure the bill in the House is fast-tracked so that similar challenges do not arise next year.

“We cannot be here all the time saying that our farmers are suffering and nothing tangible is taking place. Farmers from the Gusii region together with our neighbours from the West of Rift are not happy at all. We cannot have a country where there are areas that never have complaints, yet whatever they produce is the same, the auction market is the same, and we are being told the reason is testing,” he said.

He continued: “In 2025, we cannot have the mouth being the single testing instrument for a product. We have to move to scientific testing… we all have different tastes even in whatever we eat every day. How can a person be the expert who says tea from factory X—and coincidentally, tea from the East of Rift—always has a greater value? It is so sad that only in Kenya is the mouth still the testing tool. Enough is enough; we will not sit here again and watch our farmers suffer.”

According to the MPs, it is also alleged that some clerks and ghost farmers have many kilograms of tea without corresponding known tea garden acreage. They demanded a thorough investigation of the recruitment process and a lifestyle audit for factory top management and clerks to address the falsification of weighing scale scandals.

“We are deeply concerned that some KTDA directors have prioritized personal gains over growers' interests through excessive board meetings and inflated allowances. We call for a review of KTDA board structures, including term limits, allowance caps, and mandatory performance evaluations. Some directors have failed in their duty to protect farmers from mismanagement, and this absence of oversight has created room for exploitation and inefficiency,” he said.

The MPs also said that all management agreements between KTDA Management Services and smallholder factories must be backed by performance contracts with clear deliverables and penalties for non-performance.

Other issues raised surrounded hydropower generation.

Yegon said over Sh3 billion was deducted from farmers over the past seven years for hydropower projects intended to reduce factory electricity costs for KTDA factories.

However, not a single hydropower project in the West of Rift—including the stalled Setet and Kipsonoi projects—has been completed, even as he stated that the money collected was used to complete hydropower projects only in the East of Rift“We demand the criteria used in the allocation of the raised funds in the developments and commissioning that led to the exclusion of the West of Rift factories,” he said.

They added that last month, President William Ruto officiated the release of Sh2.7 billion held by the Kenya Deposit Insurance Company (KDIC), which was previously invested by KTDA in the collapsed Chase Bank and Imperial Bank.

The money was supposed to be refunded to farmers at the factory level for those that had invested, but to date, it has not reached the affected factories. They demanded that the disbursement be expedited and full public disclosure be done.

The MPs also demanded the introduction of blind or scientific tea testing at the auction to eliminate bias and guarantee fairness.

Kisii Woman Representative Dorice Donya said the drop in bonus prices across the country was due to inefficiencies at KTDA in product processing and marketing.

“We are not here to castigate or make another region feel like they are taking anything from another region. Every region in this tea bonus received a very serious drop in terms of payment of the bonus. The only problem is that ours from the West was already low, and the reduction exacerbated the situation. The buck stops with KTDA,” she said.

She noted that the government has made efforts by allocating money to the sector to help reduce processing costs, but it has not trickled down because of the incompetence of those managing KTDA

“We are here as leaders to call out KTDA, and if they are not going to put their act together, they will let this administration down and, most importantly, make farmers suffer from receiving little money from their produce, in which they have invested heavily,” Donya said.

As far as brokerage is concerned, the MPs said that of the 13 firms serving Kenya's tea auction, only one originates from the West of Rift, yet the region contributes 68 percent of national tea production.“We demand fair representation in brokerage licensing to ensure equitable participation and regional inclusivity in tea marketing. We also demand the immediate disbandment of the tea trade association and a transparent exercise involving the farmer be put in place,” Yegon demanded.

They also raised concerns over deliberate imbalance in representation at KTDA Holdings and called upon the Tea Board to develop regulations that recognize the volume of tea produced and the number of factory units between the East and West of Rift.

Similarly, they claimed that KTDA's staffing structure is heavily skewed, creating imbalance and marginalization, with the West of Rift region systematically denied adequate representation in the decision-making structures of KTDA and other national tea policy organs.

They also want a separation of accounts for all tea factories in the West of Rift, with each being allowed to operate independently and transparently, with individual audited statements of accounts accessible to farmers.

They further demanded that directors declare loans borrowed to pay second payments (bonuses) to ensure that farmers are not burdened with debts they never benefited from or were not consulted about when the loans were taken.