Kirinyaga Senator James Murango has sounded the alarm over growing disruptions in Kenya’s coffee and dairy sectors, calling on the Senate to launch immediate investigations into recent government directives and their impact on smallholder farmers.
Rising on the Senate floor, Senator Murango expressed strong concern over a recent directive by the Ministry of Agriculture mandating direct payment to coffee farmers through the Nairobi Coffee Exchange, bypassing traditional cooperative society systems.
“Farmers deserve transparency,” Senator Murango declared. “We must know if stakeholders were consulted adequately before issuing this directive. Its impact on cooperative societies and small-scale coffee growers could be severe.”
He requested that the Senate Agriculture Committee urgently probe whether the directive aligns with the Constitution, assess its economic implications on cooperative societies, and determine whether it protects small-scale farmers from exploitative market practices and inflated operational costs.
In a separate matter, Senator Murango also raised red flags over what he termed an unfolding crisis among dairy farmers in Kirinyaga. He cited complaints from members of the Kirima Slopes Dairy Cooperative, where milk collection has drastically fallen from 75,000 litres per day to just 15,000 litres.
The affected farmers, he said, are now incurring daily losses estimated at over KES 2 million, due to reduced purchases by New Kenya Cooperative Creameries (New KCC) and the Meru Central Dairy Union.
“Farmers were blindsided,” he said. “They need immediate solutions, not storage crises. The Senate must act before this turns into a full-blown rural economic emergency.”
Murango further urged the Agriculture Committee to investigate the cause of the sharp reduction, recommend urgent solutions for milk surplus management, and examine whether regional bias or increased competition from dairy imports is contributing to the crisis.
The Senator warned that without swift intervention, livelihoods across key agricultural zones could collapse, and trust in government support systems eroded.
The Speaker of the Senate directed that the matter be prioritized by the relevant committee, which is expected to table a report with recommendations in the coming weeks.
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