Kenya’s tea bonus row: Why farmers are getting Sh12.50 to Sh50 per kilo

For smallholder tea farmers, the annual second payment - commonly called the bonus - can make the difference between meeting household expenses and carrying debt into another season.

But growers across the tea belt are reporting markedly different returns.

Reports say that farmers delivering to Kanyenyaini Tea Factory in Murang’a received Sh30 per KG for the 2025/2026 season, down from Sh33.50 the previous year and Sh51 in 2024.

Other factory announcements reported by the media include payouts of Sh50 per kilogramme in Rukuriri and Sh12.50 in Kaptumo.

These are factory-level declarations, not a single national rate.

The Kenya Tea Development Agency has also warned that a consolidated bonus list circulating online was fake, saying each factory board would announce its own rate.

The variation has nevertheless fuelled complaints, particularly among growers in western tea-growing counties who say their bonuses are far below those paid in parts of the Mount Kenya region.

The monthly payment is not the bonus

Part of the confusion stems from the way smallholder tea payments work.

Farmers receive a regular payment for green leaf delivered to a factory throughout the year.

After the financial year closes, the factory determines a second payment based on the revenue generated from its tea sales, after accounting for costs and other approved deductions.

The second payment is therefore not a fixed national allowance.

It depends on what each factory earns from selling made tea through the Mombasa auction and other sales channels, how much it spends on operations and how much green leaf farmers supplied.

Costs can include processing, electricity, fuel, labour, transport, maintenance, management services, loan interest, statutory payments and other factory expenses.

The remaining amount available for farmers is then used to calculate the second-payment rate.

A farmer's eventual bonus depends on that rate and the quantity of green leaf supplied during the year, with applicable deductions made before payment.

Why are the numbers disputed?

At the Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Summit on October 8, Ruto said reforms had raised farmers' average earnings to Sh56 per KG of green leaf, with the figure also confirmed by the Tea Board of Kenya chief executive.

Growers and farmer representatives disputed the claim.

Joseph Rono, an agricultural expert and spokesperson for the Tea Small Scale Farmers Association, said that if the regular green-leaf payment averaged Sh26 and the second payment averaged Sh17, the total would be closer to Sh41 - 43 per KG, not Sh56.

The disagreement may partly reflect different ways of describing farmer earnings, but growers want the calculation made clear and reconciled with actual payment slips and bank deposits.

The distinction matters because the regular green-leaf rate and the annual bonus are separate components of income.

The pressure behind the payments

Factory performance is influenced by more than the quantity of leaves delivered.

Auction prices, the grade and quality of made tea, currency movements, the volume sold and operating costs all affect the amount available for farmers.

Kenya's tea trade has also faced shipping disruptions this year.

In April, the East Africa Tea Traders Association told Reuters that around eight million kilograms of tea were stuck in warehouses in Mombasa as Middle East shipping routes were disrupted.

The association said the region accounted for roughly 20 - 25% of Kenya's tea exports at the time.

That shock affected the wider tea market, although it does not by itself explain the difference between every factory's bonus.

The dispute is heading to court

The controversy has taken a legal turn.

The High Court in Nairobi has allowed smallholder growers in Kisii and Nyamira to initiate judicial review proceedings over the 2025/2026 second payment, citing alleged discrimination, disputed calculations and possible violations of the Tea Act.

The court's permission to begin proceedings is not a final finding that the payment formula is unlawful.

The substantive case will need to test the farmers' claims against the responses of the Tea Board of Kenya, KTDA Management Services and other parties.

For growers, the immediate concern is the amount deposited for months of work.

For the sector, the challenge is to make the bonus formula clear enough that farmers can understand how factory revenue, operating costs and their own deliveries determine what they receive.