Pyrethrum farmers in Nakuru want the government to annul irregular lease agreements worth millions of shillings between private developers and the management of the moribund Pyrethrum Regulatory Authority to avert imminent fraud.
The farmers representing some, 3,000 growers of pyrethrum across 19 counties are contesting the agreements they say if they obtain will see prime parcels of land and godowns belonging to farmers benefit unscrupulous individuals at the expense of farmers and employees of the authority now wallowing in poverty.
Through the Agriculture committee in the Nakuru County Assembly, the farmers want an inquest into a 20-year lease agreement of the authority`s storage premises to a local businessman that was allegedly done without prior consultation of farmers who own the company.
While furnishing the media with lease documents on Thursday, he flagged as questionable, the committee`s Vice Chairman Wilson Mwangi said the proceeds of the leases are scheduled to be channeled to a private account at a local Bank for unspecified reasons.
In the damning revelation, the authority that until now lacks a substantive board of directors has since rebranded as Pyrethrum Processing Company.
"The company has further appointed BONNKAM ventures limited to collect the rent of leased properties on its behalf without the knowledge and consent of the farmers.The farmers are demanding that the leased land amounting to hundreds of acres in the 19 counties be reverted to them to support research programs amid calls for the revival of the pyrethrum sector," said Mwangi.
Mwangi is now calling on pyrethrum farmers in the regions to halt the supply of the crop to the company until the state Department of Agriculture conducts and concludes an independent and comprehensive audit in the operations of the just rebranded public company.
He is instead urging farmers to deliver their crop to private processors pending the audit process.
A spot check at the six-acre Pyrethrum estate Phase Four in downtown Nakuru established that a private developer has already hived off two acres of the residential property and construction work is underway on the plot.
The property’s lease agreement indicates that the developer entered a five-year agreement with the management of the company in September last year and has paid money due to the agreement as instructed by the management.