Politicians from Kisii County have been told to keep off politics from the running and management of coffee business at primary co-operative societies across the county.
Gusii Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union Chief Executive Officer Robert Mainya regretted that some politicians in the region were politicising coffee farming, especially marketing of the crop without having basic knowledge on what happens in the industry.
Speaking at his Kahawa House office on Tuesday, Mainya challenged politicians to conduct basic survey on issues affecting the coffee sector in the region and ensure they comment on the same from an informed perspective, instead of politicising the running of the sector with hearsay and half-baked information about the position of the coffee industry in the region.
Singling out marketing of the crop, Mainya challenged politicians not to gauge the performance of coffee in the market on the number of sacks from their respective cooperative societies but instead interrogate the managements of cooperatives on the grades they delivered for marketing and how much those grades fetched for the farmers.
"The problem with our politicians especially those from the coffee growing areas is lack of information on the coffee sector in the region and when they rise up to speak in public gatherings on coffee issues, they misrepresent the facts and incite the public against the managers of the sector, something which reflects them as corrupt individuals out to exploit and steal from the poor farmers," he lamented.