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Farmers agony over coffee theft

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BY EJIDIAH WANGUI

NAIROBI, Dec. 19 – Dressed in a heavy brown jacket and a woolen navy blue hat, 67-year-old Mzee John Kinuthia emerges from his coffee field at around 10 a.m. local time in Githunguri, Kiambu. Though appearing tired and sleepy, he agrees to hold a brief interview with us. “I haven’t slept the whole night, we have been going round the farms the whole night due to rampant coffee theft that is now pushing us to the edge, we don’t sleep anymore, if we do, we might wake up to empty farms in the morning,” he says.

Mr Kinuthia is among other coffee farmers in the region who have lost millions of shillings through theft of the crop from farms and factories. The farmers have now been forced to hire extra security or spend sleepless nights at the farms and factories to guard their crop. Kinuthia says the thieves do not only target the farms, but factories some of which have already lost millions of shillings. “I have not witnessed such theft in my whole life as a farmer, this is worrying, but this has been fueled by the sharp rise in prices on the international market, those behind this are making a killing while farmers continue to suffer,” he says.

Kinuthia expresses concern saying the only time that coffee farmers were looking forward to good rewards for their hard labor, selfish people step in to reap where they did not sow. He, however, calls on the government to intervene and save the coffee industry and much more the farmers who bear the brunt of such ills. A stone-throw away, is Joseph Kuria’s home which overlooks his 5-acre coffee farm. Kuria is facing a similar dilemma. He has been a coffee farmer for as long as he can remember.

Having inherited the farm from his late father, Kuria says he would risk his life to save what he terms a family treasure. “All my life, coffee has been the source of my income, so when such issues arise, I feel bad, why would someone want to feed out of other people’s sweat?” he poses. “We are told that the stolen coffee is smuggled to Uganda, where a 50-kilo bag is sold at 24,000 shillings,” he adds. Kuria, who heads the security group in Githunguri, says though farmers have to supervise their farms during the day, they are forced to stay awake at night to guard the crop against thieves.

Their counterpart, Joyce Wanjiru from Kagaa, also in Kiambu County, told Xinhua, “This has never been witnessed again, there have been similar cases, but this seems to be well organized and out to punish us – farmers who have toiled for so many years with little to write about, we have been very patient and the only time we thought we would get paid well for the hard labor, something else crops up, it is very sad, and something has to be done now.”

Ms Wanjiru is one of the farmers from Kagaa who haven’t given up on coffee. She believes the sector has great potential and calls on the government to trail where the stolen coffee is being sold and apprehend those behind it. Her neighbor Mama Nyaguthie, she told us, uprooted her coffee last year amid poor prices and rising theft cases which eats up to their profit.

“No one would have the courage of stealing coffee berries if there was no ready market somewhere, I believe those behind the crime are well connected to the market, we are calling on security agents to step in and save us from unscrupulous traders,” she says.

BLAME GAME

She, however, says private millers could be behind the increasing cases. “We also blame the Coffee Board of Kenya for issuing licences without vetting applicants, most of the stolen coffee is sold to them,” she told Xinhua. On the other hand, the board, which estimates coffee worth millions of shilling has been stolen, has said it is cracking the whip on millers and roasters instigating the thefts warning they would be stripped of their licences.

The farmers have now called for a meeting with top security personnel from the region to raise their grievances. During the Jamhuriday celebrations last week, Central Provincial Commissioner Japhter Rugut promised the farmers that the government will do more to fight the illegal trade.

The official also called on cooperatives to offer farmers better prices. The country has been fighting to return the crop to the lucrative foreign exchanger it was in the 1980s when the crop was the biggest earner, although this has been haunted by ills such as theft. (XINHUA)

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LUKE MULUNDA
LUKE MULUNDAhttp://Businesstoday.co.ke
Managing Editor, BUSINESS TODAY. Email: [email protected]. ke
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