Angry coffee farmers burn store

Property worth thousands of shillings was yesterday destroyed after coffee farmers affiliated to Ramukia Co-operative Society in Mukurweini set on fire a store.

The angry farmers had earlier blocked the road leading to Kagunyu Coffee Factory in an attempt to bar delivery of coffee to the Kenya Co-operative Coffee Exporter (KCCE) in Sagana.

They later descended on Kagunyu factory and set it ablaze, and upon the arrival of a contingent of both regular and Administration Police officers, they took off to avoid arrest.

Kagunyu factory Manager John Maina told The Standard that the farmers were protesting the decision by the management to deliver their coffee to KCCE for milling and marketing.

"They wanted accountability for the consignment of 3,412kgs delivered last year to the milling plant before further berries would leave the factory to the plant," said Mr Maina.

Maina claimed that one of the officials who allegedly incited the farmers to burn the store was several weeks ago kicked out of the society's management committee.

The management was unable to put out the fire before consuming the whole store because the angry farmers pelted them with stones.

"The (sacked manager) started mobilising farmers at around 7am using a loud speaker, urging them to converge at the factory and block any attempt to have coffee leave the factory," he added.

However, Maina said despite the chaos that rocked the factory, they managed to transport at least 1,591 bags to KCCE for milling.

A similar attempt by farmers from the neighboring Gatura Coffee Factory to set it on fire were thwarted by the police who arrived minutes before.

Months ago, Gatura administrative offices were set on fire by unknown people to allegedly conceal records, and stop the audit, which was going on at the time.