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KTDA-farmer payouts, tea reforms on agenda in Ruto State House meeting
Kenya Tea Development Agency directors (seated from left) Geoffrey Chege Kirundi, David Muni Ichoho and Wesley Cheruiyot Koech and other stakeholders address a media briefing at their offices in Nairobi.
The Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) directors will be hosted by President William Ruto at State House on Thursday, where a raft of issues and challenges affecting the society are expected to be discussed.
Dr Ruto is expected to hand over part of the Sh4.8 billion that had been deposited at Chase Bank and Imperial Bank by the time they were placed under administrative management due to cash flow challenges.
In 2020, it was reported that KTDA recovered a total of Sh1.7 billion of the deposit that they had in the two banks.
It comes hardly two weeks before the agency releases the much anticipated rates for the 2024-2025 financial years’ bonus payout to the 680,000 farmers that supply green leaf to its 77 factories in the country.
It also happens at a time when 17 factories, most being in the West of Rift zone, are seeking autonomy from the parent factories in what the shareholders say would enhance transparency in the marketing, management and financial operations of the produce.
The meeting between the President and the delegation led by KTDA Holdings national Chairman Chege Kirundi is scheduled to start at 1:00 pm, according to a communication by the agency headquarters to all zonal directors in the 21 tea-growing counties.
The KTDA Group Company Secretary Mathews Odero in a communication to the factory directors said the delegation will convene in Nairobi, in a venue to be communicated later, before heading to State House using buses.
“The meeting shall mark the handover of payment of Deposits held by KTDA Holdings Ltd under the Chase Bank Ltd (in liquidation) and Imperial Bank Ltd (in liquidation)” Mr Odero stated in the letter dated September 9, 2025.
KTDA had Sh 1.9 billion deposits at Chase Bank by the time it was placed under receivership in April 2016. It has since been rebranded under the SBM Bank.
By the time Imperial Bank was put under receivership in October 2015, KTDA had in its fixed deposit account Sh 2.9 billion which were to mature late in the year.
A zonal director from the West of Rift said majority of the members of delegation travelled to Nairobi on Wednesday ahead of the meeting to avoid hiccups due to the urgency of the meeting.
In the financial year ending June 30, 2024, KTDA paid small-scale tea farmers a record Sh89.29 billion for the supply of green leaf.
It marked a Sh21.5 billion increase from the Sh67.7 billion paid in the previous financial year (2023).
Out of the Sh89.29 billion, a total of Sh56.68 billion was paid as a bonus, while Sh32.61 billion was disbursed as monthly payments for delivery of green leaf to the factories.
KTDA Holdings also distributed Sh1.04 billion in dividends to 54 factories across the country being the highest dividend payment in the company’s history.
The State House comes weeks after the TDA Holdings Limited filled the position of vice chairman left vacant following the sudden death of Erick Chepkwony, hardly a year after he assumed office.
Mr James Ombasa Omweno, the KTDA board member for zone 11 (Kisii county) took the influential position on August 28, 2025 in an election held at Enashipai hotel, Naivasha.
Mr Omweno beat fellow board members Engineer Samson Mosonik Menjo of Z,one Nine (Bomet county) and Philiph Kipkemoi Langat in charge of zone eight (Kericho county) for the position.
A number of challenges including rising cost of production, shrinking markets and high expectations from farmers, some of whom are now focusing on diversification in agricultural production.
Most of the factories have been unable to directly service orders from buyers in the export market as a result of the cap in prices that was put in place by the government as a result of the Tea Act 2020.
Stock pile-up has been witnessed at the Mombasa Tea Auction – a regional trading floor – for the last three years with the recent revelation that more than 100 million metric tons of processed tea remained unsold for two years.
As a result, the government suspended sections of the Tea Act, 2020, to allow individual factories to directly export the made tea to various markets without going through the Mombasa Auction, which was a mandatory process.
In a bid to make the industry profitable, the government and the industry players are engaged in diversification in production with a focus on specialty teas to satisfy the various market demands.
Production of orthodox tea is being given special focus by the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) managed factories with the support of the government, with huge market openings in Japan, Russia, China, Germany, Iran, France, and countries in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
Kenya has been dependent on the black CTC (Cut, Tear and Curl) tea to feed her traditional export market outlets – Pakistan, United Kingdom, Egypt, Sudan, Kazakhstan and Poland.
China, India, Korea, Australia, Switzerland, Iran, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, and Morocco among others are the new markets that KTDA and TBK with the backing of the government and marketing agencies have secured in a bid to raise export volumes.
