The reforms initiated at the Kenya Tea Development Agency Limited (KTDA) by Uhuru Kenyatta’s regime has now collapsed.
Former KTDA officials from the Mt Kenya region, who were ousted from office, have accused the current directors of further indebting factories through bloated expenses.
They say that the new directors appointed to reform KTDA have drastically increased their expenses in many of the factories from between Sh8 million to Sh12 Million annually. This they say has increased the debts the factories owe.
“The tea factories that used to generate billions of shillings have now been run down by debts,” Prof Johnson Kang’ethe, the leader of the ousted directors from Mt Kenya said.
Prof Kang’ethe and his counterpart Francis Macharia reveal that the factories are now indebted to a tune of Sh18 billion following the unexplained expenses.
He added that the move will likely have them taken into receivership over the huge loans.
READ: Nothing changed at KTDA as tea sector now riddled with corruption
To stem the pilferage, the former KTDA officials gave the new directors a month to clean up house failure to which they would ‘be taking over the management of the tea processing facilities’
Speaking at a hotel in Murang’a town, Prof. Kang’ethe said they have a court order that they claim allowed them to reoccupy their offices.
The officials alleged that more than Sh65 million had been spent by the factories to facilitate the forensic audit ordered by the former agriculture CS Peter Munya at Sh800,000 per factory.
“One of the factories is indebted to a tune of Sh400 million that was borrowed to assist in payment of the first bonus,” Kang’ethe stated and promised that when they take over the facilities they will help them get back control of the 69 tea factories.
