The Tea Board of Kenya partnered with officers of weights and measures to seize faulty tea weighing scales from the Tombe tea factory in Nyamira county.
Samuel Njane, the director of compliance and surveillance at the Tea Board of Kenya told the press during their inspection in Gusii region, that there have been a lot of complaints countrywide from tea farmers concerning the subsiding weight of tea leaves from their farms that led to the impromptu inspection.
“Tea farmers from both the East and west of the Rift have logged complaints about factory clerks accusing them of manipulating tea leaves weighing scales which indicate less weight of tea leaves than the actual weight leading to huge economic loss to farmers,” Njane said.
“We have discovered that for sure some factory clerks are using faulty weighing scales whose weight readings have been tampered with and most tea farmers lose their tea weight at the tea buying centres, an area we want to deal with once and for all so that farmers can benefit from their hard labour of farming this cash crop,” Njane added.
Tea farmers were advised to be keen and instantly report any case where tea factory clerks will be using faulty weighing scales at the tea buying centres to weigh their tea leaves.
Read Also: Muranga Tea Farmers Predicting High Tea Production
“We have seized one faulty weighing scale from Tombe tea factory and we shall investigate it to know how it has been manipulated because its weight readings indicate a lesser quantity of tea when measured against our standard weights,” an officer from weights and measures headquarters in Nairobi Erick Ndeke said.
Ndeke also warned the factory unit managers saying that they must ensure they release accurate weighing scales to ensure that they give farmers accurate weight readings of their picked tea leaves and anyone caught manipulating the weighing scales will definitely face the full force of the law.
Subscribe to YouTube Channel at Switch TV.
