After a long dry spell experienced across the country farmers are now enjoying the rains but tea farmers are yet to start celebrating.
The dry season saw tea leaves wither hence interfering with the quality.
For now the leaf quality is yet to meet Kenya Tea Development Agency's (KTDA's) leaf quality.
The new development has forced most farmers to hawk their leaf to the multinational companies.
Speaking to this writer at Nyakegogi shopping centre in Sametra Sub-County, Moffat Ariba, a farmer, said that this may affect their income.
"As tea farmers, we are yet to recover from the effects of the dry spell, since our tea bushes are still struggling to re-generate. For now we are pruning the poor quality leaves,” said Ariba.
Mary Getaka, a farmer, says though tea hawking is outlawed by the Tea Board of Kenya majority of the farmers contracted to the KTDA-run factories.
"We are well aware of the Tea Board's ban on tea hawking by farmers contracted to the KTDA but the leaf quality that is re-generating in our tea farms can not be accepted by KTDA,” observed Getaka.