We are not Ripping-Off Tea Farmers: KTDA responds to faulty Weighing Machines claims

Kenya Tea Development Authority (KTDA) on Thursday dismissed claims that it was using faulty weighing machines to exploit tea farmers in Kirinyaga County in a statement that said that their machines are validated every morning to ensure compliance with the applicable standards.

“We take seriously complaints from our farmers,including complaints of tampering with weighing scales.We wish to state that all weighing machines used at tea buying centres across all Kenya Tea Development Agency managed factories are by law annually verified and stamped by weights and measures department,” the Agency operations Director, Alfred Njagi, said in the statement.

In Kenya, tampering with the weighing scales is a criminal offence and Mr Njagi warned that anyone found committing the offence is liable for prosecution, aside from the agency’s internal disciplinary mechanism.

The KTDA was responding to claims raised by Hon. Gichimu Githinji, Gichugu Mp, that cartels in the agency use faulty weighing machine to steal from tea farmers in the region.

Mr. Gichimu lamented that tea farmers were losing many kilograms of tea delivered to various buying centers to faulty weighing machines, arguing that the cartels have illegally adjusted the machines to ensure 1.5 kg of tea is deducted from all farmers each time they make deliveries.

The director verily admitted that the machines used by the Kenya Tea Development Agency sometimes gave wrong figures.

He assured farmers from Kirinyaga that his team is committed to ensure that all deliveries at their stations are is properly weighed and accounted for and that investigations have commenced with a view to expose the cartels.