Smallholder tea growers are protesting second payments for the 2025/2026 season after factories declared rates ranging from Sh12.50 to Sh50 per kilo of green leaf, and farmers in Kisii and Nyamira have been allowed by the High Court in Nairobi to start judicial review proceedings over the payouts.
The gap between factories is wide. Rukuriri paid Sh50 a kilo and Kaptumo Sh12.50, Pulse Kenya reported. In Murang’a, Kanyenyaini Tea Factory paid Sh30, down from Sh33.50 the previous year and Sh51 in 2024. The Kenya News Agency reported growers in the county complaining that the lower payment would not cover their costs, with some saying they were thinking of switching crops.
How the bonus is set
Each factory sets its own second payment. Farmers get a monthly rate for leaf delivered through the year. When the financial year closes, the factory board works out how much is left from tea sales at the Mombasa auction and other channels after paying for processing, power, fuel, labour, transport, maintenance, loan interest and management fees. That sum, divided by the leaf delivered, becomes the bonus rate.
So two neighbouring factories with different costs, debts and tea grades can pay very different amounts. The Kenya Tea Development Agency has warned that a consolidated bonus list circulating online is fake and that each board announces its own figure.
Growers in western counties have been the most vocal, saying their payments are far below those in parts of the Mount Kenya region.
Disputed earnings figures
The row sharpened after President William Ruto told the Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Summit on October 8 that reforms had lifted farmers’ average earnings to Sh56 per kilo, a figure the Tea Board of Kenya’s chief executive backed.
Joseph Rono, spokesperson for the Tea Small Scale Farmers Association, disputed it. He argued that a monthly payment averaging Sh26 plus a bonus averaging Sh17 comes to about Sh41 to Sh43 a kilo, Pulse Kenya reported. Farmers want any official average reconciled with their payment slips.
Market pressures
The 2025/26 year was difficult for exporters. In April, the East Africa Tea Traders Association told Reuters that about eight million kilos of tea were stuck in Mombasa warehouses after Middle East shipping routes were disrupted. That region takes roughly 20 to 25 per cent of Kenya’s tea exports.
The court’s leave to proceed is not a ruling on the formula. The Tea Board, KTDA Management Services and other respondents will file their responses before the case is heard on its merits.
Coffee farmers are having a better start to their season. The first Nairobi Coffee Exchange sale of 2026/27 brought in about Sh801 million, Kilimo News reported, a contrast that may add to pressure on tea factories to explain their costs.
Sources: Pulse Kenya | Kenya News Agency | The Mountain Journal | Kilimo News
