This archive report was first published on 17 November 2019.
On November 17, 2019, a tense standoff occurred in Kutus town, Kirinyaga County, when members of the Coffee Task Force were barred from entering a venue for a scheduled stakeholders meeting by agitated coffee farmers.
According to Francis Gachoki, a leader from Baragwe Farmers' Cooperative Society, the task force, led by Professor Joseph Kieyah, had failed to incorporate the farmers' recommendations into the final draft presented to them earlier.
Mr. Gachoki stated that the task force was imposing 'some foreign' recommendations on the farmers, leading to the resistance and hostility displayed at the abortive meeting.
Mafric Njagi, a farmer, questioned the decision to block the task force, saying, 'Why don't you let Kieyah and his team settle in the hall so that he can tell us his agenda, instead of blocking him from the venue?'
