HARD WORKING PEOPLE OF CENTRAL IMENTI

AGRICULTURAL POTENTIAL

BANANAS
Oh yes! These are very sweet bananas but the irony here is that farmers have been always getting a raw deal. Until when will this dehumanizing and exploitive system will be allowed to continue. What farmers are demanding is their taxes to be put into areas which will be helping them to progress. This is the only way people will cherish their freedom, and liberty and truely enjoy real peace.

BANANA SAGA by Peter G. Micheni

I read the pathetic farming conditions that exist in Central Imenti Constituency in Kenya that sits astride the Equator! What a picturesque countryside I saw complete with snow-capped Mount Kenya, undulating hills, plains and all sorts of scenery! But what struck me most was the diversity of agricultural activities that go on in the area, from Dairy farming to tea and coffee farming, and a whole lot of food crops such as bananas, maize, beans, French beans, green peas, potatoes and a whole lot of other subsistence as well as cash crops! God must have blessed this part of the country!

But Alas! Why are farmers still poor despite all these God-given resources? Are the farmers a lazy lot? What about the traders? Why are people still so poor yet they wake up very early and toil till late? I will try to look at some of the crops independently. Let us start with bananas. This delicacy is popular all over the world. It is not only man who loves bananas alone – those farmers who live near Mt. Kenya forest can attest how elephants, monkeys, birds and a whole lot other creatures cherish bananas. Looking at the photographs of the produce, your bananas are some of the best I have seen anywhere. Big question is: “Why do banana farmers earn peanuts for their produce?”

For a start, most farmers grow them so that the local market is depressed because everybody has them. But then what about other areas where they are not grown or do not thrive well? There you touch a raw nerve! The road system, especially feeder roads into the villages are in a pathetic condition. Even if a farmer had a market for his produce across the ridge, the roads are simply impassable especially during the rains. But why haven’t the past leaders and politicians helped to have them repaired? True, Kenya is a developing Country with few resources, but certainly even unpaved roads can be graded to make them passable. In fact with so many unemployed youth, they could be employed to help maintain the road and earn a little money, other than being left to idle. This too would reduce crime because the idlers have something to do! This two-pronged approach has succeeded elsewhere, only that the past leaders lacked foresight!

A scene to behold: When a public service bus stops on the main highway to drop off or pick passengers, it is mobbed by hundreds of women all of them competing to sell bananas to weary, hungry passengers. And because the product is abundant, passengers pay peanuts for a bunch of bananas. For example bananas worth 1 dollar (Kenya Shillings 75) can feed the whole bus of 60 passengers! In USA stores, a banana bunch of that size would not cost less that 10 dollars (SH. 750)!
Why Bananas, Bananas everywhere and no money in the pocket for the farmers? Shame, what a shame?.

The saga would not be complete without introducing “alien” buyers who travel from afar with big trucks and buy the bananas – often at throwaway prices, then transport them to Nairobi or other big towns and make hefty profits! Sensible and honest leaders would have helped farmers form a co-operative Society that would help the farmers sell their produce in an organized way without being exploited. They would have helped find a way of getting the produce from the interior to where there are better prospects of earning a better price.

Finally we must remember bananas, just like other fruits are perishable. All the more, why women mob buses, or other “alien buyers” is to sell at whatever price before they begin rotting. It is 40 whole years since we became Independent and the plight of these farmers must be addressed by sober-minded leaders and Politicians!
Peter G. Micheni wildeekenya@yahoo.com

ROADS

Impassible roads are the main impedment to development and progress in Kenya today. No country in the whole world has ever realized any seeable development without good transport and communication networks.However, although we are blessed with the best minds in the world, it is apparent that our policy makers and implementers the policies which are there are in a deep slumber. The state of our road network you can see from the picture above is pathetic for a country of the stature of Kenya. The only thing our pseudopoliticians or quasi-politicians have perfected is the politics of ethnicity, greed, exploitation and hyena mentality. It is the prerogative of the government to ensure that roads are there and working.It is imperative for our so called leaders to serve their electorates without any reservation because that is the primary reason why they are in parliament.

Coffee

Coffee has been the main source of income for majority of people in Central Imenti. However, farmers have been cheated again and again by corrupt co-operatives officials,Kenya planters coffee Union(KPCU), Coffee Board of Kenya,and many others who colluded with multinationals and coffee marchants to drain and suck very poor Farmers, whose poverty has been inflicted on them directly or indirectly. Time has come for coffee farmers to be told the true value of their produce. Thieves may run but they will have no where to hide!

MAIZE

Maize/ Corn is the main stable food for most of the people in Kenya. Central Imenti produces her share towards the national granary but the story is the same as in coffe farming. Maize farmers too, have been subjected into very hard times due to poor price and lack market although there is enough market in arid and semi arid parts of the country but are totally inaccessible due to poor transport netwok. How long will tis goes on?

Look at these banana plants.This is the best indication and evidence that people in Central Imenti are hard working, but the only thing they are missing is good representation in areas where decisions which affect the labor and produce are made.
This can be changed if the electorate know how much power they have in their vote.