The new plan by the Kenya Kwanza administration on the mode of payment to coffee farmers is likely to be an uphill task as it has been construed as a strategy of undermining the autonomy of the cooperatives.
Coffee growing in Kenya is on the upward trend due to increased sales and higher income. Hence, new regions like the South Rift and Central Rift are embracing the growing of coffee. This success is due to farmers’ efforts channeled through their cooperatives. It is also due to better governance at the factories and cooperative level.
There have also been some positive interventions by successive governments especially since the Kibaki era. This is through the Ministry of Cooperative Development. These interventions have been in the form of legislation and regulations.
Recently the Kenya Kwanza Government through the Ministry of Cooperatives proposed to pay farmers directly while bypassing their respective factories and cooperative. This was done without involving the two main stakeholders in the sector namely, the farmers and their cooperatives. The coffee farmers have loudly and boldly protested this move by the Kenya Kwanza Government.
The coffee farmers are cognizant of the critical role played by their factories and cooperatives and coffee mills in the following areas: increase of production per unit area; Accessing inputs such as seedlings, fertilizers and coffee equipment; providing extension services and training to farmers; providing market linkages and transportation; organizing and securing good returns by optimizing sales and prices; sourcing for milling services, and; advancing credit to needy coffee farmers and catering to the welfare issues such as education and health.
Cooperatives are critical for farmers’ organising. In this regard they have no other voice and the government cannot purport to play this essential role. It must be remembered that coffee farmers have no unions similar to those of teachers, health workers or even public servants.
Undermining these pillars of coffee farmers’ welfare is dealing a blow to farmers.
The attempt by the government to woo farmers by promising better and higher coffee returns sent directly to them is a short term benefit that in the long run will be counterproductive for the farmers. This situation is similar to the past attempt by the government’s Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC) to cripple the teachers’ trade union – The Kenya National Union of Teachers(KNUT). This was done by the TSC’s deliberate failure to remit dues to the Kenya National Union of Teachers. In the short term teachers were mesmerized by the additional shillings on their payslips but they soon trooped back to their unions and pressed for their remittances to be forwarded to KNUT.
Section 36 of the constitution of Kenya 2010 provides for the freedom of association and this includes associations such as cooperatives. It provides in part the right to form join or participate in the activities of any association of any kind.
Our understanding of this article is that the coffee farmers have an inherent right to associate through their factories’, cooperatives, national coffee unions and mills, and therefore, any legislation, regulation or directive that undermines this right is null and void to the extent that it is inconsistent with this article.
On the state and operational level, the attempt by Kenya Kwanza regime is not only contradictory for a government that has a fully fledged ministry of cooperatives, cooperative laws and regulations and cooperative officers to attempt to undermine coffee farmers’ cooperatives. Indeed this is tantamount to the government shooting itself in the leg.
Coffee farmers have a legitimate right to ask – if cooperatives are that valuable, then what are the cooperative officers and related government officials including the Cabinet Secretary for? The attempt to bypass the farmers’ cooperatives is part and parcel of the neo-liberal approach – that of ignoring the role of farmers’ cooperatives in production and instead focusing on misguided policies purporting to increase farmer’s earnings.
Additionally, the attempt is nothing but a paternalistic approach to a fundamental problem – that of increasing farmers earnings. The state by this action appears to be saying that it knows best for the farmers – better than the farmers themselves.
The coffee sector has all constitutional, legal, administrative and operational justifications to resist this neo-liberal, paternalistic and ill-conceived attempt to muzzle the coffee farmers’ co- operatives. The Agikuyu people have a saying – Kiraro gitimiagwo (Never shit on the place that you have been given rest).
Equally, the Kalenjin have a saying; Makiyumen Sasur yeomen keyep (Never cut the leaves of a wild banana which shielded you from rains). Both sayings above adequately speak to adamant position of coffee farmers of standing by their cooperatives in the face of the onslaught by the Kenya Kwanza regime.
