A tea farm. [Photo|the-star.co.ke]
Farmers from Makomboki Tea Factory in Kigumo, have threatened to go to court to have the factory’s board dissolved over management wrangles.
They claim that disputes among directors have affected operations of the factory and they fear it could collapse. It is said the six directors have been engaged in unending court battles since June this year thus are unable to run the factory effectively.
On Wednesday, the planned annual general meeting ended prematurely after it became chaotic as the farmers failed to agree on who to lead the meeting.
This follows a court order which was brought early in the morning indicating that none of the officials from the factory is allowed to chair the meeting and that instead of the regional manager Willis Odhiambo should take charge.
One faction of the board moved to court in September to contest the removal of Erastus Gakuya as the chairman by four directors out of the six and John Mwangi put in charge. The case filed at Milimani Law Courts is yet to be determined.
The farmers claim that the directors are spending too much money on litigation.
“The board has not held any meeting this year as they are always in court yet there are being paid allowances,” said Sammy Njumbi one of the farmers.
James Muchai, a director said the agenda of the meeting was not met as the shareholders became hostile and he proposed another meeting to be convened within 90 days. “We want a special general meeting convened so that the issues affecting the factory can be ironed out” he added.