Deputy President (DP) Rigathi Gachagua has pledged to oversee the implementation of proposals by tea farmers to strengthen the sector as the government rolls out comprehensive reforms.

Speaking during the opening of the two-day national Tea Reforms Conference at Kericho Golf Club in Kericho town, he promised immediate implementation of the Tea Act 2020 to ensure reforms spelt out in the law are back on track.

Further, Gachagua said the conference was geared towards streamlining the sector to improve farmers’ earnings.

“I give an undertaking that the reforms we are going to agree on, our two Houses of Parliament where we have the majority members will pass the needed amendments into law and thereafter we will ensure a 100% compliance with the law. This is part of our Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda,” Gachagua said.

He has called upon all the stakeholders to contribute freely, adding that the conference had been specifically organised to listen to them as the reforms are implemented.

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“I want to invite you to be honest and brutally truthful. Be free to tell us where the challenges are. This is the last conversation we are going to have about tea. We cannot keep saying these things every year. It is the time to tell us the oppressors, who are frustrating you and we will act on them,” urged the DP.

Additionally, Gachagua lauded Kericho Senator Aaron Cheruiyot for sponsoring the Tea Act but said the law to revive the sector had frustrated those who previously served in the government.

“The Act is comprehensive and can help our farmers earn better. Even as we make the amendments, we will enforce the Act because if it had been implemented as effected we would have already dealt with the challenges halfway and we would now be dealing with the remaining part right,” he said.

Through Executive Order 1 of 2023, President William Ruto has tasked the Deputy President with turning around farmers' fortunes in the Coffee, Tea and Dairy subsectors.

 The Tea Conference is being held after last month's Coffee Summit in Meru. The Summits are meant to bring respective stakeholders together to agree on the best intervening measures to make the sectors profitable to the farmers.