Today I want to ask like my comrade Bob M. We always hear of English coffee and English tea. Where in Britain do they have a single tree of coffee or tea bush? Just asking?
I came across these questions asked by some random stranger and it got me thinking of how we perceive our production process and gains that come with it.You can also wish it away as some ignorant question depending on your view point. African countries largely depend on Agriculture and mostly so, EAC countries. And looking at the figures that largely influence our GDP for example, you get to understand why Agriculture is literally, the backbone of the economy. I mostly think we are in it so much as economic activity than for the love of it. It’s the bread that feeds our hunger. It pays our bills. And no wonder our frustrations when our efforts are exploited by a middle hand or do not pay off handsomely.
I recently did a field visit accompanied by colleagues to some of our producers and we set out with a mind to visit a tea SPO and some small flower farm in Thika. I was in the company of a bunch of colleagues with varied nationalities among them a Brit and a German. 
We left early, having agreed to pick the German from his hotel at 7.30am. We had issued a prior warning that we are on EAT lest he wakes up 2 hours earlier. Well, a week-long visit hasn’t been LONG enough to adjust to our time anyway. He has daily been thrilled by Elephant beer parties that my colleague has been treating him to. We apologize for showing up at the hotel late, hey, got nothing to do with the African and ‘their’ never keeping time tendencies as we are always thought of. Why, even the Brit was a few minutes late this morning. In Okot P’ Bitek’s Songs of Lawino….do you remember Lawino lamenting about the western culture that has raided a destructive effect on our African culture? The simplicity of our African culture prior to the Mzungu ways was heavenly or so I want to imagine. You know, working in a multicultural diverse environment has brought this book to life in more ways than one. Speaking of our lack to respect time tendencies, as Lawino says, the Africans had their way of describing time in terms of seasons, nature, cockcrow etc. This was later used to validate the notion that the African has no futuristic tense, or if you may like, doesn’t think about tomorrow. So, next time a Mzungu yaps about your inability to keep time, tell them I said we should never be imprisoned by time. We were designed to watch out for the cock crow at dawn to tell us it’s morning, check the position of the sun to tell us the different times of the day et al. I am honestly amazed at how the African copes with the new concept of civilization. If you ask me, we are more tenacious.
The German , as we were later to learn woke up at dawn thanks to some Mullah who kept saying his prayers at, he can almost swear, an interval of five minutes. Do you have Muslims in Germany? Yes, except that you don’t notice them. Ahem! We get into the Thika Super-Highway and the shock on the Elephant beer guy at the sight of people running outwit the motorists to cross double lanes was ridiculous. One of my former colleagues, still a German, talked about it this way..”My God, I almost got a heart attack”…People crossing the superhighway!!! In Germany, the police would be called to the scene because people would think you are suicidal. Well, I sigh. In Kenya, no-one really cares about that anyway. I am so intent to have a field day—and learn about Producer empowerment, sustainable livelihoods and the positive impact our work is creating.
We actually get lost twice in Thika as we try to trace Blue Post Hotel where we are to re-organize ourselves and plan our day. We ended our trip at a small flower farm that is off Thika away towards Gatanga. It’s got about 24 greenhouses and it’s fun seeing what work goes on in a typical flower farm. I am excited at the prospect of receiving flowers…., I hope so. Roses never have been my favorite but I fell in love with the “high and peace rose” the instant we met. As we stroll through the field, only one question lingers in my mind—“do the women who work in a flower farm actually enjoy receiving flowers?” I ask the guide and he quite can’t answer it. Everyone in the group gets curious and it prompts our guide to call a lady worker to answer us. Yes, they actually enjoy receiving flowers. For your information, the flowers that we get in shops locally or at a local florist are normally the “reject”. The best is packed for export. Most of it to France(from that particular farm). Did I say I left the flower farm with a cold bug? Why, I entered the receiving area which is at 7°C and later the packing area which is at 3°C. A freezer kind of and well, joked with my colleagues that we instantly moved from tropical Africa to Europe. By the way, thumbs up to those men who work in those “Freezers”. I doubt the eskimo jackets they wear can bust that cold. Lo!
We spent most of our day at the tea SPO, called Makomboki Tea Factory, where our trip started. Now you know why “Makomboki” post.
It’s located across the Ndakaini dam in Kangari. We get lost lost again and this gives us a chance to see the dam that supplies Nairobi with water. The terrain is sloppy because the area is on the slopes of the Aberdares. Well, I only knew the Aberdares from the Nyandarua/Ol kalou side, which you can also access through Makomboki. We are received by enthusiastic staff, and much as this was intended to be an informal visit, it takes some formal twist as we learn about the history and what the factory has been up to. It’s one of the many Fairtrade Certified factories and has been since 2006. Looking back, they have a strong story to tell and the benefits to the farmers have been manifold. It’s thrilling to hear stories of farmers being in charge of their own destinies. As I listen to the impact and empowerment theme, from governance to development, I can only think about the developmental possibilities and positive change the country would experience if farmers or the local Mwananchi was empowered.
The Manager shared their experience of empowerment of area residents through benefits from premium funds generated from tea sales made mainly in Europe. Well, from their stats, as at June 30, 2011, they had received premiums of about USD 1M. which has been invested in myriad community development projects including schools, maternity wings, water projects, play grounds, footpaths, bursaries, water dams, dispensary, youth training et al.
They have accomplished so much within a short period of time and of the projects they point out, two capture my mind. One, a classroom floor(s) they carpeted (cemented), when the jigger menace had threatened the feet of school children. Well, Murang’a has its story with jiggers but I always thought jiggers are never a problem in high altitude areas. Tongue in cheek, I remember in a matatu towards Meru someday and when we reached around Kutus, my drunk seatmate began thrilling us with a story about jigger menace in some parts of Murang’a. He said that even one of the local area chief was leading by example. Why, he had purportedly been on news for jigger infestation. True or not, I can never tell.
Another case that I found quite interesting was a school that they started from scratch. Bought a 3-acre piece of land, built classrooms and the students that they started with are now in standard 6. Wow! Students no longer walk for 5 kilometers to school. They have also bought some 300 acres of land and planted trees and am amazed not just at the much Fairtrade is doing to uplift the standards of living of producers in developing countries but actually the change that empowerment brings. We are later to visit one of their dispensaries that has since been handed over to the government and a maternity wing that they are putting up behind the facility. Well, even a little tot was born there the previous week. What comes to mind as we look at these positive impact projects is the role of public-private partnerships, empowerment of farmers/producers etc. Comes to mind is what the CDF funds have done over the years…Definitely; the allocation of these funds is even more than these premiums in some cases. If transparency and accountability was enforced, there is no limit to what can be achieved. Also a case of alternative administration of aid. Probably what works is not handouts but re-organizing the economic aid matrix in a way that the recipients are in charge of their own needs. Maybe, the CDF governance has got to learn a lot on the administration of the premiums from the cooperatives model.
My colleague tells me of a constituency at the Coast province that used the same model. It carried out a participatory rural needs assessment and developed a 5 year plan with allocated funding etc. Unfortunately when a new MP came in, he brought with him his own model and that was a dead end.
Well, you take tea from the local store shelves and as you enjoy the rich sip, maybe you have never had a chance to see the production process. I have posted it below.
It was fun seeing how the raw product from the field goes through the production process…stage by stage to the packaging for auction!!! Looking at the stages reminded my of my bro’s mishap when we were little children. As typical boys, my brothers were adventurous and to wade them off risky adventures which included hiking the stationary tea lorry as raw leaf was loaded, we had always told them the carrier would take off with them for grinding in a tea factory. Well, none of us knew where these warnings would take us for the 8 year old, and his 10 year old brother, not long afterwards became casualties. I am partly posting this to mock off his little ignorance at the time that would have saved him the near fatal accident that left him a convalescent kid with a broken skull for months. True to our threats to keep him in safety, the carrier took off with both of them, amongst other village boys. Well, the furthest they knew was uncle’s home 200 meters away and once the carrier passed by his gate, they knew their goose,gander and goose-lings were cooked. The little boys figured out that jumping off a speeding carrier, which was midway cruising hilly section of the road would save them the grinding experience at the factory. How wrong!!! How sad!!! The youngest jumped off first and tragically had a huge rock for his landing ground. The left skull was damaged so bad that the dude got unconscious. The elder one started counting his jump but was luckily intercepted by the other boys. Well, both survived but took months in and out of hospital. Well, Koome this is for you dude, even if they took you to the factory, they for sure would have intercepted a whole living you at one of the many production stages! From what I saw, the pain would only have started at the maceration stage and there are awful many stages before that, that would have discovered you among the leaf:-)
It’s one of those reflective experiences that also made me commit to making a conscious decision to aid the rural farmers in community development by not only supporting our work but also buying ethically labelled products. Buy Fair!
WRITEthinking 