Hard time for Githambo Tea management as farmers protest over bonus

Tea farmers at Githambo tea factory in Kiharu constituency have downed their baskets and took to the factory protesting poor annual bonus payments.

The farmers gathered outside Githambo tea factory early in the morning with twigs of their product at hand, where police officers who were manning the factory opened the gate for them in order to air their grievances.

At first, the farmers protested against getting inside the factory, alleging that could have been a ploy to stop their demonstrations, but eventually agreed to meet the board of management together with directors of six(6) electoral areas of Githambo tea factory.

The Chairman Francis Kagondu Karanu had a rough time trying to address the farmers who would hear none of his explanations.

Amidst the heckling, the chairman blamed KTDA of interfering with farmer’s audited accounts that stipulated that the farmers would have benefited from an annual bonus of Sh54 per kilo for the last nine(9) months the audit had been done.

He said that the Sh42 was from KTDA and revealed that his team questioned about the figure.

On a wild reply, the farmers led by John Gichichi and Maina Muthoni questioned why did the chairman and his board accept to sign for Sh42 payment if they indeed had questions about the low bonus payments.

The farmers however declared to close down the factory operations until such a time when their payments will be increased.

They also resolved to boycott tea picking and thus they should not witness any of tea lorries traversing the villages in the name of collecting tea from farmers.

Henceforth, if their declarations will not be honoured, the farmers called for resignation of their directors and the factory chairman for failing to account for the farmers' hard earned money.

The farmers there after started piling stones at the factory gate where police tear gassed them and scattered over 3,000 tea farmers who had showed up to fight for their rights.