Two Mt. Kenya region Members of Parliament want a forum held with the KTDA where pertinent issues raised by farmers can be addressed urgently.
The Mathira Legislator, Rigathi Gachagua and his Gichugu counterpart, Githinji Gichimu have however, told the Agency that should it fail to honour their request they will have no alternative but to seek its disbandment.
“The KTDA has been accused of fleecing farmers amongst other malpractices which we would want clarified or ironed out short of which we will institute a Parliamentary process to have the Agency disbanded,”Gachagua warned.
The two legislators accused the KTDA of going outside its core mandate and start offering Insurance services and Sacco services whose proceeds only end in the pockets of its top management.
Gichimu recalled how he made an impromptu check on the agency’s weighing machine last week at one of the tea buying centres in his constituency only to discover how the farmers were being swindled of their green leaf tea.
He said he had been accompanied by officials from the Weights and Measures department who inspected the machines and found that they had been tampered with by either the clerks or the agency deliberately.
There has been hue and cry from the tea farmers after the agency declared low bonus payments for the ending year.
KTDA has on the other hand blamed the poor payments on the prevailing worst situation at the world market.
It claimed the instability in Sudan, the Middle East the anxiety caused by the Brexit were to blame for the poor bonus payments, excuses the farmers have since trashed.
The legislators also said they would demand for the immediate return of the one-man one-vote method of election as opposed to the current situation where only farmers with large tea farms were allowed to vote.
By Irungu Mwangi
