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Tea farmers hold demo against KTDA

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Published on Saturday, 02 June 2007 06:57

Tea farmers in Kisii yesterday demonstrated against an order that they take part in the election of new Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) directors on Friday before starting to deliver leaves to a new factory.

The farmers, most of them affiliated to the Gianchore factory in Nyamira District, marched to the DC's office where they vowed to defy the directive.

They threatened to uproot their bushes if the Government declined to construct a new factory, as earlier promised, at Sombogo in Marani Division in Kisii. This, they argued, was the condition for moving from the Tombe factory where they had been delivering the crop for 15 years.

They boycotted the elections several months ago after KTDA insisted they move from Tombe to a new factory in Nyamira.

The farmers, led by a team of civic leaders and a former Kenya National Union of Teachers national treasurer, Mr Bosco Mboga, argued that taking part in the elections would mean they had given in to the KTDA demand that they move from Tombe to Gianchore.