Governor Mutai: My problem with multinational tea firms operating in Kericho

Kericho governor Erick Mutai has come out to clarify his recent comments on multinational tea firms in the region, in which he told them off for farm mechanisation, alleged blackmail and mistreatment.

The county boss last week said the tea companies were mechanising operations at the expense of local human labour.

He accused them of threatening to pull out of Kenya if he continued speaking up about the issue, to which he dared them to as his administration was ready to announce new investment contracts internationally.

"If you do not want to do business with us, because I have heard that you might leave for Rwanda if I continue speaking out about this, you can leave for Rwanda like yesterday. We don't care, because this tea is not helping us as it is now. You can leave if you want because you cannot blackmail and push us," said Dr. Mutai in his Mashujaa Day address on October 20.

"Even if you leave, we can as well announce a new contract lease internationally, and we will get tea buyers and increase the rates at our own terms. We must have respect from our investors here and  I will ensure that our people get the best out of their resources," he said.

On Wednesday, the county boss said he does not have an issue with investment in the region, but that it should not be done to the detriment of local residents.

“The story of the multinationals tea estate is so worrying. Kenyans need to understand that I have no issue with investment there, but with how they are handling things in Kericho. We need to understand that the family of James Finlay and the former families that run Unilever are actually settlers,” Mutai told Citizen TV during the Day Break program.

“There is a difference between investors who are coming to invest now and the investors such as Tom Cholmondeley, who could shoot a black man and say ‘I thought it was a monkey’. We have settlers in Kericho, and the owners of these farms were actually born and raised in Kericho.”

He pointed out that the investors’ land lease contracts had long expired, after which he said information regarding their renewal has not been made public.

“We have close to 24,000 hectares and my question is, the lease ended some years back for this land and the National Land Commission ruled Kericho and Bomet counties are trustees of the multinational tea estates. But the lease was renewed and my question is, who renewed it?” he posed.

“Who leased out this farm on behalf of the people of Kericho? What are the contents of the lease? Were the people of Kericho and Bomet consulted?” Mutai added.

The governor further took an issue with the low rates being paid by the multinationals for the huge tracks of land they rent, terming it a misuse of resources.

“They are paying us Ksh.264 per acre per year, while the cheapest you can ever rent a farm in Kericho is Ksh.7,000 or Ksh.8,000. The other day we bought a farm in Kimugu for a water project and now we had to buy a farm from Unilever, which is government buying government land,” said Mutai.