Pyrethrum board directors shown the door

The directors of the Pyrethrum Board of Kenya have been fired.

This follows Agriculture Minister William Ruto’s move to appoint a three-member management team to run the Nakuru-based parastatal.

Those fired include chairman, Mr Isaac Mwangi and eight others though their replacements are yet to be named.

In a related development, a former director of the board Mr Samuel Kihiu on Thursday asked for the involvement of farmers in reviving the Pyrethrum sub-sector before any decision is made.

He said professionals should be the ones to manage the industry and, at the same time, opposed plans to turn the parastatal into a pyrethrum processing company without consulting all players.

Limited company

The government wants the parastatal turned into a limited company by shares owned largely by growers and initiate the process of raising capital including through transaction advisors and a strategic partners.

Mr Kihiu was reacting to the government’s appointment of a three-member management team to oversee the restructuring of the once vibrant and profitable sub-sector.

Mr Ruto on Wednesday appointed Mr Gem Argwings Kodhek who will lead Mr James Wachira and Mr Peter Sang in undertaking major strategic, managerial, human resource and financial restructuring of the Pyrethrum Board of Kenya.

But Mr Kihiu said the priority lies in paying farmers well, funding the board properly and recruiting qualified personnel.

“It is unfortunate that pyrethrum farmers earn only 30 per cent of the gross profit from their production,” he said.

He called for supply of quality planting materials to the farmers saying some of the plants used had lost their value contents.

Clear debts

Pyrethrum production has experienced a number of problems for the last five years and despite the government’s move to clear some Sh863 million owed to farmers for crop deliveries that had accumulated since 2003, the parastatal still owes growers millions of shillings.