Mismanagement incur loses to Coffee farmers

Mismanagement incur loses to Coffee farmers

Coffee farmers subscribed to Khamulati coffee farmers’ cooperative society are a dissatisfied lot after it emerged that top management of the society colluded to steal from them by awarding ghost farmers top kilos in coffee delivery.

Kimilili sub county Co operative officer while overseeing the election of new officials at the society said the farmers discovered that the former secretary general of the society called Joel Wasike was fielding in names of non- existing farmers and awarding many kilos which in the end affected the payment of other legitimate farmers.

He said the ghost farmers were being awarded as much as eleven thousand kilos which was being transformed to a lot of cash saying when the money for the legimate farmers who submitted their coffee the money is shared among them which makes the farmers get peanuts.

“After the farmers discovered the syndicate they fired the secretary together with his accomplices and have since recorded a statement with the police to pursue the people involved to ensure such issues don’t incur again in future” he said

However he called upon the new management of the society to desist from such unscrupulous means of making money saying coffee farming if well managed can be able to transform the lives of the farmers by having them harvest more from their farms.

He further called upon the farmers to ensure they maintain their farms well by pruning and use of fertilizer to have the trees yield fruits saying proper crop maintenance can be able to help the farmers harvest more.

One of the farmers Richard Mboja said the issue of ghost farmers has really affected the output of the society and called upon the police to conduct a thorough investigation in to the matter saying the farmers have suffered a lot at the expense of the cartels.

He further called upon the government to set up more stringent rules of governing the coffee sector saying there are many farmers depending on the crop yet they don’t reap much from it due to the middlemen who have flooded the market.