Kisii County Assembly Ward Representatives Wednesday moved to pass legislation aimed at cushioning the local coffee farmers from exploitation and enhance productivity.
The legislation further seeks to protected them from brokers reaping from them.
House Minority Leaders Denis Ombachi in a motion tabled in the assembly Wednesday also the county to play a vanguard role in supplying farmers with better and quality seedlings as part of the broader process of safeguarding the crop farming from collapse.
It pains, he stated, that some struggling farmers were now abandoning coffee farming due to low support from the authorities.
“Kisii had been a leading supplier of coffee for a while, a situation that is no more due to lack of proper support systems.”
“As a County we should come up with means to make it appealing and affordable to our people especially the youths,this would in turn improve the region’s economy,” the Marani MCA told the Assembly early Wednesday.
Ombachi spoke at of exploiting brokers milking more profits than those who spend considerable effort tending the crop at the farms.
“Coffee is more than a drink — it’s a livelihood for many, for others a daily ritual. I beseech the County to be more deliberate to ensure those who grow it are protected especially from brokers,” stated Ombachi.
The MCA, himself a coffee farmer said the motion tabled Wednesday acknowledges the value of the coffee industry in Kisii adding that it had been a source of livelihood for many.
“It grieves therefore that most land initially set aside for the societies and factories is being grabbed with abandon and projects that have no connection to coffee are being erected there,”he stated.
During the session on the House floor, Ward Reps from both sides praised the bill’s potential to strengthen County’s potential to leverage itself for enhanced coffee production.
Boochi Tendere MCA James Ondari said ,though himself not a farmer,he was appalled with the ongoing pattern of illegal and arbitrary change of use of some parcels of land where coffee societies sat.
“Already one the national government is constructing houses under the Affordable Housing Scheme in a society in his ward’without proper public participation with the farmers who had painstakingly invested the societies over the years”.
“This is not only an attack on the Society’s property but also a betrayal of the hundred of farmers who depend on these farms for their livelihood,” stated the Ward Rep.
Lilian Gor said coffee fetches more than tea and would form an alternative source of income for the local farmers.
Other Ward Reps who supported the bill include Masige East MCA Michael Motume.
Email your news TIPS to Editor@Kahawatungu.com — this is our only official communication channel
