The Kirinyaga tea farmers who have boycotted plucking the crop for the last four days have vowed they will continue with their strike until their directors give them more money.

The farmers, affiliated to Mununga Tea Factory said they will not accept anything less than sh42 per kilo of green leaf, Sh10 more than the sh32 the company is offering as a final payout.

But a former Ndia MP James Kibicho who is also a grower asked the farmers to end the strike to prevent further losses, saying the farmers were losing 60,000 kilos of leaf worth sh30 million daily due to the strike.

He said the farmers had other options of getting their monies including convening a special general meeting where they would make their demands known.

The factory is said to have deducted some money from their final payout, commonly known as bonus, to invest in a hydroelectric power plant that will enable the factory save some sh65 million in power bills annually. The factory has also bought 100 ha of land to establish a fuel woodlot and a water project.

The farmers, about 500 of them who met at the factory gates this morning said their directors had usurped the powers of the Annual General Meeting that should have approved any major investments undertaken by their factory.

Kenya Tea Development Agency Regional manager Maina Kinyua said contrary to the impression created that all Kirinyaga Tea farmers had joined the strike, only Mununga out of the five factories in Kirinyaga was affected.

He said a small group of the factory’s 8500 members had chosen to incite their colleagues to boycott the plucking and were intimidating those who chose to pluck their tea.

“There was an incident yesterday where this small group burnt one farmer’s baskets”, Kinyua said.

Kinyua also said that the sh33 on offer was the highest ever second payment and there was no reason for the farmers to protest.

He said the decision to invest in the sh700 million hydro-power project had been communicated to the farmers through their buying center committees.

Police in riot gear kept vigil at the factory as the otherwise peaceful farmers congregated at the gate.

The farmers’ representatives said the proffered payout was not commensurate with their hard work.