Tea farmers from at least five tea buying centers allied to Tombe tea factory have gone on strike to protest over alleged rampant corruption by tea clerks from the factory.
The five buying centers include Rianyangena, Kemera, Magombo, Tombe B and Kenyamware and are said to be the leading in terms of quantity of tea sold to the factory.
Speaking on Tuesday during the protest at Kemera tea buying center, the center’s chairman confirmed the dissatisfaction from at least five buying centers and vowed to paralyse farming activities until the top management cracks a whip on the clerks in question.
He alleged that the clerks were soliciting money from farmers for favours to award them more kilograms of tea leaves delivered, with those defying the order being sent away over 'wrong tea picking.'
“So far five buying centers have confirmed their protest and we expect the numbers to rise. We are being held at ransom by employees who want to make money from us. They have even gone ahead to tamper with the electronic weighing machine hence stealing from innocent farmers,” said Mr Ben Orina, a tea farmer.
He said the protest will continue until the management sacks the clerks in question and purchases new weighing machines as a measure of the factory asserting confidence among disgruntled farmers.
“We are not going to work soon as they expect. We want to see the management crack a whip on clerks who we have identified in a letter that we wrote on Monday. We also want new weighing machines,” he added.
Factory chairman Mr Afred Moindi confirmed the pretest on phone but urged farmers to get to work as the factory launches investigations into the allegations.
“We have heard the complaints but it will be essential if they go back to work as we investigate the claims for a decisive action,” he said.