Crops thieves cause havoc in Murang'a County

Murang'a farmers cannot now attend Sunday service because they have to guard their crops against teenage thieves looking to raise money for alcohol and drugs.

"Even burial ceremonies where society unites in grief have become high risk since it is the time homesteads open their doors wide open for all visitors who include spies out to plan crop thefts," said former Gatanga MP Nduati Ngugi.

Speaking in Kimuchu last Friday where he was a guest in a meeting between avocado growers and buyers, he noted that families are now attending church in rotational mode since leaving the home deserted “is surrendering crops to the thieves”.

“The worst hit are avocado, macadamia, mango, coffee, paw paw, pepper, banana and vegetable farmers. Once they leave for church, the thugs make their raids and steal (crops) for the market," he said.

Other favoured crops are cassava, arrow roots and sweet potatoes, which have a ready market, with brokers who take advantage of the high rate of unemployment, addiction and general poverty to sustain a criminal supply chain.

 "What is paining us most is to see our stolen produce being sold openly at roadside markets, some of them next to police stations, patrol bases and chiefs' offices," lamented Mr James Kariuki, who chairs the Murang'a Small Scale Agribusiness Growers Association.

“We are losing more than 40 per cent to these thieves and our reports to police stations are never acted on, with the officers saying the county government is the one that should regulate markets,” he added.

He says when farmers go to county government offices, they are told the work of arresting and prosecuting thieves is the work of the police.

In June last year, farmers who had been called to a stakeholders meeting in Ihura stadium told then-Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya that brokers were the ‘virus’ eating agribusiness right in the farms.

Young thieves

“They come with their trucks and just park by the road. Young thieves emerge from the bush carrying small packages of harvests, have them weighed and they are paid,” said a Kandara farmer, Mr Gilbert Kigo.

Mr Munya had instructed then-Murang'a County Commissioner Karuku Ngumo to immediately form village security committees to address the menace.

Mr Ngumo then formed a committee and reports filed from police stations indicated that crop thefts accounted for 34 per cent of all reported crimes.

“Kandara, Kigumo, Maragua, Kangema and Kiharu were the worst hit. But we had a problem since the thefts were even being reported out of crop seasons, meaning the brokers were also buying immature crop," he said.

Mr Ngumo added that it was decided that the Agricultural Food Authority (AFA) and Horticultural Development Authority (HDA) develop strict laws regarding trading season time-frames, packaging for the market as well as transportation modes.

 "It was decided that the county government also play its role of regulating markets as well, or else group farmers into producer groups so that registered brokers would only buy harvests from known farmers and do it in designated markets," he said.

The trick was to streamline the war where all brokers caught buying immature produce outside harvesting seasons would be arrested and charged.

“It would also have introduced traceability aspect where all brokers would have been required to keep a record of volumes bought from which producer groups. This would have made it hard for thieves, since they would have been forced to belong to a producer group so as to access buyers," Mr Ngumo said at the time.

A year later, the situation is worse, with the thieves seemingly having grown in number, and brokers continuing to pitch camp on roadside markets.

“Even as we wait for the government to act on the issue, these brokers should have morals. When they buy farm produce from minors who carry them in school bags, it means their only interest is profits," said former Mt Kenya region MCA caucus chairman Charles Mwangi.

Mr Mwangi said chiefs and their assistants are the first responders to this menace “since the brokers and the thieves are well known in the society”.

The problem has led to thieves being lynched, which is not good for the economy, security and cohesion, he said.

Governor Irungu Kang'ata has said he will continue to insist on farmers joining cooperatives where they can jointly access subsidies and bulk markets.

Maximise earnings

"We want to help out farmers to maximise earnings through lowered cost of production and elimination of trade threats that include broker-induced thefts. We will require both the legal and proactive approach," he said.

Dr Kang'ata said where laws will be required the County assembly shall deal while those areas that need multi-sectoral collaboration will be pursued and solutions enacted.

Already, AFA Director Benjamin Tito has announced new regulations for the avocado sector that could protect farmers from thefts.

“The value chain will be subjected to rigorous inspection and marketing agents must be registered to weed out pretenders hell-bent to earn through criminal manipulation of the market. The rules came to effect on March 24, 2023,” he said.

In the new rules, it is illegal to transport avocadoes in open trucks, enclosed personal cars or gunny bags on motorcycles, bicycles and tuk tuks.

“Specifically, all exporters must engage licensed marketing agents. Anyone caught dealing with crop thieves will have their licences revoked,” read part of the circular dated March 13, 2023.

Fresh Produce Consortium of Kenya CEO Okisegere Ojepat said the regulations should cut across all other commercial crops.

“This is good for the industry since if enforced to the letter, it will help in tracing the harvest trail. They will not only improve quality and eradicate criminal brokers who thrive on thefts and corrupting weights and measures but will increase wealth among farmers," he said. 

Central region's Horticultural Crops Directorate official Sarah Ndegwa said the regulations have been debated since 2018 and it is time to implement them.

"We have to ensure we only deal with quality harvests for maximum gain in the market. We have brokers who buy immature harvests making our markets to rate us as risky source," she said.

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