SHOCKING SCANDAL ROCKS TEA SECTOR: FURIOUS FARMERS DEMAND ARREST OF KTDA BOSSES FOR STEALING BILLIONS

The Kenya Tea Development Agency has become a den of thieves, with directors and managers bleeding dry over 680,000 struggling small-scale farmers who have finally had enough and are now calling for mass arrests and criminal prosecutions.

In explosive testimony before the National Assembly Committee on Agriculture and Livestock, enraged tea farmers demanded that the government immediately apprehend those responsible for mismanaging their funds and implement the damning audit report conducted by the Tea Board of Kenya.

The bombshell revelations paint a sickening picture of systematic looting that would make even the most hardened criminal blush.

Government audits have exposed how some KTDA directors are holding between 110 and 165 meetings annually, pocketing an obscene average of Sh50,000 per sitting from their respective factories, translating to a jaw-dropping Sh5.5 million to Sh8.25 million per director every single year.

While these fat cats feast on millions, the farmers who break their backs in the tea fields are left with crumbs. One devastated farmer, Josiah Kerich, revealed how the audit report exposes directors misusing money, making decisions without farmer involvement, buying land without consent, and losing millions through unnecessary allowances.

The desperation is palpable.

Zeddy Mausa, another farmer whose voice cracked with emotion, lamented being paid a bonus of just 13 Kenyan shillings, making it impossible to pay school fees or buy food for her family.

Agriculture Principal Secretary Paul Ronoh has finally exposed the truth, declaring that KTDA was well-structured but has been infiltrated by crooks who have raised operation costs in factories that negatively affect earnings by farmers.

His words have sent shockwaves through the tea industry.

The rot goes deeper than anyone imagined. Nepotism has become standard practice, with directors employing their relatives and friends in a systematic scheme that has bloated the payroll beyond recognition, with every election cycle bringing a fresh wave of creative employment strategies as new directors rush to secure positions for their kinfolk.

Members of Parliament from the West of Rift tea-growing region are now calling for the formation of an Ad-hoc Committee to investigate KTDA’s operations, accusing the agency of entrenched corruption and poor management following shocking discrepancies witnessed in the 2025 tea bonus payments .

The numbers tell a devastating story of inequality and injustice.

While farmers in the Mount Kenya region enjoyed bonuses of Sh50 per kilo, their counterparts in Kisii and Nyamira received as little as Sh12 per kilo, with some farmers in regions like Mudete getting just Sh10 per kilo .

The anger has reached boiling point. Nominated Senator Esther Okenyuri revealed that farmers in Kisii and Nyamira counties have begun destroying tea collection centres in protest and disillusionment, believing their sweat and toil are not being fairly rewarded .

At Chai Trading, a KTDA subsidiary, 18 officers were recently sacked for engaging in fraudulent activities that further disadvantaged already struggling farmers, with the PS vowing that similar purges will sweep through other KTDA-owned companies.

The government has finally been forced to act. Principal Secretary Dr. Kipronoh Ronoh has directed the Tea Board of Kenya to conduct a comprehensive audit of all loans taken by KTDA-managed factories, ordering the board to hand in the audit report within 14 days  .

Shockingly, it has been revealed that factories in the West of Rift region have taken loans from those in the East of Rift to the tune of Sh14 billion over the years, which had not been repaid .

Committee chairperson John Mutunga, who represents Tigania West, called for the complete restructuring of KTDA, saying that it has played a significant role in the farmers’ challenges, with lawmakers arguing that KTDA representation is unfair, leaving most farmers in western Rift Valley without proper representation.

In a desperate bid to contain the scandal, KTDA has suspended all staff travel, off-site meetings, and training activities across its subsidiaries, with an internal memo stating that no travel, domestic or international, for any business-related purpose shall occur without explicit prior written authorization from the Holdings Board .

But it may be too little, too late.

Dr Ronoh has drawn a line in the sand, warning that if directors do not raise tea prices immediately, the government will send the current directors packing, declaring there will be no more consultative meetings because the problems have been identified and the government will take them head-on.

The 680,000 tea farmers who have watched their livelihoods destroyed while directors enriched themselves are no longer willing to wait. They want arrests. They want prosecutions. They want justice. And they want it now.