Kenya’s smallholder tea farmers are challenging declining annual bonus payments, with growers in Nandi County rejecting a payout of KSh12.50 per kilogramme while farmers in Murang’a demand explanations for sharp differences in earnings between neighbouring tea factories. The protests are exposing growing pressure on farm incomes as production costs remain high and tea factories contend with weaker returns and rising operating expenses.
In Nandi County, farmers supplying Chebut/Kaptumo Tea Factory have rejected the announced bonus, describing it as insufficient to cover the cost of producing green tea leaf. According to the Kenya News Agency, the growers have given the government seven days to intervene and have threatened to stop delivering their harvest if their concerns are not addressed. They are demanding a payout of at least KSh28 per kilogramme, compared with the declared KSh12.50.
The amount is among the lowest declared for the 2025/2026 financial year. Kaptumo’s bonus fell from KSh13 per kilogramme in the previous year to KSh12.50, while payments at other Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA)-managed factories varied considerably. Rukuriri Tea Factory declared KSh50 per kilogramme, Gathuthi KSh47.50 and Ngere KSh48, highlighting the wide differences in the additional payments received by growers across the sector.
The dissatisfaction is also evident in Murang’a County, where farmers supplying Kiru, Kanyenyaini, Gatunguru and Githambo factories have questioned why their payouts are significantly lower than those received by growers supplying other factories in the same region.
According to reports, Kanyenyaini farmers were expecting approximately KSh30 per kilogramme, compared with KSh30.50 the previous year. Githambo growers were due to receive around KSh30.50, while farmers supplying Gacharage Tea Factory were receiving KSh49. The KSh18.50 difference between the two rates has fuelled calls for greater transparency over factory performance and bonus calculations.
For some growers, the declining returns are prompting difficult decisions about the future of their farms. Farmers interviewed in Murang’a said their tea earnings were becoming insufficient to sustain their households, service loans and maintain their plantations. Some are considering replacing tea bushes with avocado trees or moving into dairy farming, raising concerns about the long-term attractiveness of tea production for smallholders.
The annual bonus is a second payment made after factories assess their financial performance, including revenue from tea sales and the costs of processing and marketing the crop. Farmers also receive regular payments for green leaf delivered throughout the year. The bonus therefore reflects the financial results of individual factories rather than a uniform national price.
KTDA-managed factories processed more than 1.09 billion kilogrammes of green leaf during the 2025/2026 financial year. Industry representatives cited higher petroleum costs, disrupted shipping routes and a 0.8 per cent levy on tea exports among the pressures affecting the sector. Factory boards said their declarations followed reviews of revenue and expenditure.
The differences in bonuses have nevertheless raised questions about how factory-level costs, sales performance, debt obligations and management decisions affect farmers’ final earnings. Without clear and accessible explanations of these factors, growers may struggle to understand why neighbouring factories deliver substantially different returns.
Kenya’s tea sector depends on hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers whose earnings support rural households and local economies. If growers begin abandoning tea for alternative enterprises, the effects could extend beyond individual farms to green-leaf collection, factory utilisation and the reliability of supplies to processors and exporters.
NBF Insight
Kenya’s tea bonus dispute highlights a central challenge in agricultural value chains: higher production does not automatically translate into better farmer incomes.
The annual bonus is influenced by what happens after the green leaf leaves the farm, including auction prices, processing efficiency, transport, energy costs, export charges and factory management. Farmers bear the consequences when the final returns are lower, even when their own production costs remain high.
The disparities between factories also make transparency important. Publishing clear explanations of revenue, expenditure and the factors determining each bonus could help growers understand the differences and hold factory management accountable.
The threat of farmers uprooting tea bushes deserves particular attention. Once growers switch to other crops or livestock, restoring tea production may take years. Kenya’s priority should therefore be to improve the commercial viability of smallholder tea farming through more competitive market returns, efficient factory operations and predictable income opportunities.
The long-term health of Kenya’s tea industry will depend on whether the farmers supplying it can earn enough to keep growing it.
