Kanu Secretary General Nick Salat has told Senators to sit on a round table and resolve their differences over the stalled revenue allocation for the counties.
The official said it was now over four months since the stalemate started and warned that this would have a spiral effect on the counties if not resolved urgently.
Salat was speaking to the media moments after attending the burial ceremony of Wanjiku Mundia, who was a mother to the former Director of Survey Murage Mundia at Kiangothe village, Kirinyaga County yesterday.
Pics by Irungu Mwangi/KNA
“Am urging our Senators to sit down and give this revenue sharing matter the first priority lest they end up destroying devolution while working under it,”Salat cautioned.
At the same time Salat urged President Uhuru Kenyatta to allow programmes which were disrupted by the outbreak of the corona pandemic to resume now that the curve was flattening.
He said programmes like the BBI which have a time frame should be started right away since the general elections were just around the corner.
The official said the BBI was meant to come out with a law that would unify all Kenyans as one nation and as such the initiative should be revived at the earliest opportunity possible.
And the Gichugu MP Gichimu Githinji who was also present said he and other like-minded legislators from the tea growing zones have drafted a Bill seeking to repeal KTDA laws which discriminate the small scale farmer during elections for Directors.
He said at the moment, the more shares some farmers had the bigger the voting powers saying this was demoralizing to the small scale holders as it left the Agency in the hands of a few individuals to manipulate it as they wished.
He said the new law will allow the one man one vote policy which is the best mode of democracy adding that presently small scale tea farmers do not enjoy their democratic rights in choosing who their directors should be.
“After I got elected to parliament, I was able to interact fully with the tea farmers in my area who made me understand their predicaments under the KTDA, among them loss of many kilogrammes of delivered green tea at the weighing stage, and the non-participation in the elections of their directors,” he said.
“Once all these shortcomings were addressed through the lawful means, our farmers should start reaping the fruits of their labour,” the legislature said.
Githinji said he was able to have the weighing of the green produce issue solved amicably by working with the KTDA which allowed him to supply his own weights to every tea buying center in the area.
He said the process was through officials from the Government’s Weights and Measures Department who oversaw the calibration of the weights he supplied to the centers.
By Irungu Mwangi
