What virus? It’s tea bonus party time

Thursday evening. The club is full, with revellers dancing to music booming from powerful speakers mounted on the walls.

With no regard to the Covid-19 containment measures set by the Ministry of Health, the crowd fills the dance floor, sweating and mingling at this popular club in Bomet town.

Blinking lights sweep the room, bathing the tens of seated party-goers with a dancing medley of colours.

All the seats are taken and newcomers have their drinks while standing. Beer, whisky, wine and soft drinks are flowing almost freely.

Bar-hopping is the order of the day as the youthful, the middle-aged and the elderly savour the hospitality of multiple joints in one evening. Pockets and wallets of these residents are bulging with wads of notes.

The Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) bonus payout began to hit their bank accounts on Friday last week.

Hard cash

To satisfy themselves and others that they are moneyed, many shell out notes from wads.

They settle their bills with hard cash and not mobile money platforms recommended by the government in its efforts to fight the pandemic.

Swiping of credit and debit cards or paying through till numbers is not popular in this largely agrarian community enjoying a fortune that only comes once a year.

“Business has been good. We have had a large number of patrons in the past few days. The end-of-year festivities seem to have begun early,” a bar attendant in Kiptagich, Kuresoi South constituency, said.

The carnival mood is replicated in Kiptagich and Olenguruone trading centres in Kuresoi South, Nakuru county, Silibwet, Mogogosiek, Sotik, Kaplong, Boito in Bomet county and Litein, Kapkatet, Roret, Chepseon and Brooke in Kericho.

There is revelry in neighbouring Nyamira, Kisii and Nandi counties too.

The farmers’ purchasing power has been boosted after many months of little or no income, thanks to restrictions the government came up with in its fight against coronavirus.

“It is obvious there are new millionaires in town and they are not hesitant to make their purchasing power felt,” said Irene*, a bartender in Nandi Hills town.

Some 635,368 small-scale tea growers who supply their leaves to 54 factories managed by the KTDA across the country have been paid Sh27.6 billion in bonuses for the financial year ending June 30.

The payment is lower than last year’s Sh28.8 billion.

Twilight girls

KTDA attributes the situation to a low demand of tea in the international market, coupled with high cost of production and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Unlike in the past when twilight girls would be on the prowl for potential clients, the pandemic appears to have kept them away this year.

“We have not heard of any case of the girls coming and targeting the farmers,” a bartender in Silibwet said.

Farmers in the past have been victims of theft after their drinks were laced with sleeping drugs by the girls.

Many lost all their earning in lodgings to conwomen posing as commercial sex workers.

Spending spree

There have also been cases of the new “millionaires” camping in trading centres, where they order drinks and roasted meat for friends and strangers, before their wives and children storm the entertainment joints to flush them out and frogmarch them back home.

With money circulating in large quantities after six months of a virus-induced downturn, businesses in the tea-growing zones are booming.

“The enhanced purchasing power of the farmers – albeit a temporary one – has lifted the local business community from the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and containment measures put in place by the government,” Mr Joel Nyarangi, a trader in Chebilat trading centre on the border of Nyamira and Bomet counties, told the Saturday Nation.

“The spending spree being witnessed is nothing compared to what we have seen in the past. It could be as a result of piled-up financial demands,” said Ms Beatrice Chelangat, a resident of Roret in Bureti constituency.

Illicit alcohol dens are also be teeming with patrons, and so are wines and spirits outlets.

“The downside is that the majority of those celebrating will not have money to pay fees when learning institutions reopen,” said Rachel Tanki, a Narok South resident.