Land Rates to be 100x more for tea firms

mzeiya

Elder Lister
Well, not for your kaplot somewhere but counties want multinational tea companies to pay Sh10,000 per acre, up from the current Sh100 they have been paying since 1926! Methinks, they should also pay up the accrued inflation value that wamekanyagia for that long.

This might be a great move to improve the counties' coffers but I'm not sure if that will mean less profits to the big kahunas and ultimately affect workers' wages though..

Copied from Business Daily...
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Nandi, Bomet and Kericho to raise land rates 100 times for tea firms
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Workers at a tea estate in Kericho. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Counties from the tea growing regions in the Rift Valley want multinational tea companies to pay Sh10,000 land rates per acre, up from the current Sh100 they have been paying since 1926.

The counties of Nandi, Bomet and Kericho are pushing to have the companies pay more, citing the changing economic times and the profits made by the firms.

This could set the counties for yet another standoff with the tea growers and county assemblies, which opposed the governors’ bid to increase the rates in 2019.

“Counties are demanding that the multinational tea companies which generate billions of shillings in revenue should start paying Sh10,000 per acre and not the measly Sh100 which they have been paying since 1926,” said Nandi County agriculture executive member Kiplimo Lagat said.

Addressing farmers in Nandi Central sub county yesterday, Dr Lagat accused tea companies of exploiting counties by paying low land rates. The tea companies in Kericho County cover more than 500,000 acres of land —about 300,000 acres in Nandi and more than 150,000 acres in Bomet.

In the budget last month, Nandi indicated the multinationals had agreed to pay Sh400 million, but had not said the rate per acre.

“The standoff between the multinational tea companies and the county government has been solved and companies have agreed to start paying land rates which they had declined to pay for the past three years,” Nandi Finance executive Alfred Lagat told the assembly when he presented the budget.
 
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Renewing the land leases is the worst mistake they made. They had one opportunity to recover the land and dictate the terms of engagement. What prevented them from taking back the land and leasing it out to the firms while maintain ownership? Don't the leaders realize their population will need that land in a few decades from now for settlement and farming? Residents will now spend the next 100 yrs complaining about stolen land and fighting over small plots. Taking a single acre from these firms in future will see the country hauled to international courts for exorbitant compensation.
We still lack community leadership that puts the interests of the community first.
 
Renewing the land leases is the worst mistake they made. They had one opportunity to recover the land and dictate the terms of engagement. What prevented them from taking back the land and leasing it out to the firms while maintain ownership? Don't the leaders realize their population will need that land in a few decades from now for settlement and farming? Residents will now spend the next 100 yrs complaining about stolen land and fighting over small plots. Taking a single acre from these firms in future will see the country hauled to international courts for exorbitant compensation.
We still lack community leadership that puts the interests of the community first.
Same situation with Delmonte in Thika..
 
Suppose those companies went to court and claimed they are being discriminated against. Would they win the case?
 
Renewing the land leases is the worst mistake they made. They had one opportunity to recover the land and dictate the terms of engagement.





watu walikataa mps wapige kelele, I remember most folks were saying waititu and wa Iria wanted to steal some pieces for themselves when they had initially objected to renewal without ceding part for community use. Kiuliso did chief hustler as number 2 and "pro" mtu wa chini comment on any land lease renewal or that time they were in "love"?
 
They are not citizens and therefore can’t claim being discriminated against local companies.

It is customary to charge higher rates to non-citizens in many arenas eg entry to national parks and museums, university fees, hospitals, hotels, visa charges etc.

Furthermore and as someone has said elsewhere, Ksh 10, 000 is a pittance to them as it converts to a measly £69. And just imagine a cup of tea in Starbucks is £3. That is just one tea bag. A mere 20 tea bags pay for a whole acre for a year!
That’s one crazy bargain right there.
 
They are not citizens and therefore can’t claim being discriminated against local companies.

It is customary to charge higher rates to non-citizens in many arenas eg entry to national parks and museums, university fees, hospitals, hotels, visa charges etc.

Furthermore and as someone has said elsewhere, Ksh 10, 000 is a pittance to them as it converts to a measly £69. And just imagine a cup of tea in Starbucks is £3. That is just one tea bag. A mere 20 tea bags pay for a whole acre for a year!
That’s one crazy bargain right there.
Indeed you are a daughter of the Mountain from Mathira ya Mathomo. Siku moja lazima tukunywe kahoa pale Starbucks Karatina
 
They should not forget that Rwanda is overtaking Kenya with their quality tea and aggressive marketing campaigns.

We no longer have the comfort of being the sole producers of tea in the region
 
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