This archive report was first published on 6 July 2020.
On July 6, 2020, the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) rejected an eight-member team recently gazetted by Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya to oversee the implementation of the tea regulations, 2020.
The agency, represented by Millimo, Muthomi & Co advocates, is now demanding that the CS revokes the Gazette notice and appointments within 48 hours, failure to which the law firm will launch legal proceedings against him.
"Unless you comply with the foregoing 48 hours, our peremptory instructions is to institute legal proceedings which we shall gladly do, against yourselves to realize several reliefs at your own peril and expense shall crystalise without further reference to yourselves whatsoever," read the letter to CS Munya.
The agency argues that KTDA is a private company that is enlisted, registered, and licensed to carry on its operations within and without the country, making the appointments an illegality.
It argues that the CS, without any statutory and legal mandate, went ahead and formulated the National Steering Committee on implementation of tea reforms in Kenya and assigned specific roles to the committee members.
The team, comprising veteran tea broker Jacob Kamau Kihiu, former PS Irungu Nyakera, former MP Magerer Lang'at, Fredrick Muthuri Muriithi, and Nation Editor John Kamau as members, is to receive and review written submissions from tea stakeholders on key regulatory and policy issues relevant to strengthening the entire value chain.
