A farmer picks tea. [File, Standard]
Tea farmers from Meru's Imenti region have pleaded with President William Ruto's administration to remove punitive tea taxes.
The farmers joined tea factory managers and other stakeholders in asking the national government to remove the 0.8 per cent export levy on tea, whose implementation three months ago they termed oppressive.
Githongo Tea Factory Board Chairman Earnest Karagania and lawyer-cum farmer Earnest Kimaita joined farmers in blaming MPs for the passage of the punitive taxes, and called for amendments to rescue farmers from oppressive taxation.
Mr Kimaita, a lawyer specialising in taxation and commercial law and also a farmer, heaped the blame on MPs who failed to protect farmers from being overtaxed.
"The tea factories and farmers are against this (0.8 per cent export) levy. But none of the MPs, even from Meru, have bothered to respond to the issue," Mr Kimaita said.
He said sales of Kenyan tea at the Mombasa auction had dropped as a result of the new levy, leading to reduced incomes for growers and others along the value chain.
"It is the farmers who have to bear the loss," Kimaita said.