The shadowy coffee gangs of Mount Kenya

The shadowy criminal gangs usually strike at night, like owls. And they are part of a multimillion-shilling underground coffee empire that relies on theft to sustain their trading licences.

The Mount Kenya region has some of the best coffee in the world, but it is stockpiled in some rickety stores usually manned by watchmen, whose only weapon is a whistle and a club. In some places, farmers are forced to hire vigilante groups to guard their coffee from criminals.

When these gangs arrived at Ndia-ini Coffee Factory in Mukurwe-ini, Nyeri County, the 67-year-old watchman was sound asleep. The 20 armed men jumped over the gate, tied him up and four other guards, then escaped with more than 50 bags of coffee beans.

But they were not in a hurry. Before they left the factory, they also had time to slaughter a number of chickens, fry them and boil rice to, perhaps, celebrate another ‘accomplishment’. With Kenya’s coffee continuing to fetch a premium price at the world market – making it the most valued beverage at the New York Coffee Exchange – cartels find it easier to steal from rural go-downs than buy at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange, the age-old auction house.

“They were armed with an assortment of weapons. The theft happened so fast as they appeared to know where exactly the coffee berries were located,” he recalls. So frightened is the watchman that, four years later, he would like to hide his identity lest the cartels come back for him. “Their navigation through the stores and their packing of the commodity was unusually professional.”

There is usually no recovery of stolen coffee even though one requires a movement permit to transport it. The continuing theft of coffee from factories, especially during harvesting seasons in the central Kenya counties of Nyeri, Murang’a, Kirinyaga and parts of Embu, Meru and Tharaka-Nithi, poses a serious threat to an industry just recovering from years of low production, mismanagement and poor earnings.

Although reported incidents reduced towards late 2018 and mid 2019 in the affected counties, widespread theft of coffee beans has been eating into the fortunes of the multibillion-shilling industry and even leading to loss of life in some cases, where guards are murdered. Farmers are caught in an industry where millers, marketing agents, warehouse men, coffee equipment suppliers and transporters seek to get the beans at a cheaper price.

Cases unresolved

In all the robberies, a gang breaks into a factory building, ties up the guards, then gets away with tonnes of the beans. Interestingly, most of these cases have remained unresolved since 2016 with no arrests of major suspects or any successful prosecutions, with stakeholders saying the justice system and enforcement agencies seem unable to deal with the cartels.

Even where some stolen coffee has been recovered, like in Nyeri (2016 Mutaathini area) and Juja (2017 Juda village), the lack of convictions lends credence to assertions by various stakeholders that there could be collusion between the police and the cartels. The most affected are the smallholder farmers who grow 60 per cent of Kenya’s coffee, and market their produce through co-operative societies. Every year, they lose coffee worth millions of shillings to these gangs.

So, who is stealing the Black Gold, where is it being sold and who are the beneficiaries?  Coffee from the cooperatives usually goes through the milling process to extract the green bean, which is the final export product. There are a few private millers in the country, which also run warehouses where factories store their produce.

High-quality grades

Investigations by the Nation established that normally, thieves target high-quality grades such as AA, AB and PB because of their monetary value. These grades are blended with the poor-quality crop to retain the coffee market value. In 2017, high international coffee prices against declining production of the crop was partly blamed for the set-off in the series of theft incidents in Nyeri and Kirinyaga counties.

The vice somehow decreased in 2018 in Nyeri, but cases were reported in Kirinyaga and Embu. In this period, the government made a major stride in fighting cartels when Interior CS Fred Matiang’i ordered a two-month operation against coffee theft in the central region. The regional administration led the operation with the support of the National Intelligence Service (NIS). But the thefts resumed in late 2019 and early 2020 in Murang’a, Embu and Kirinyaga counties.

Apart from factory parchment coffee thefts, other forms of the vice also occur at various levels of the value chain, starting from ripe cherries at the farms and in warehouses and on the highways where clean/milled coffee is stolen from stores or on transit. To understand this syndicate, one needs to start the Coffee Value Chain journey from the tree, through the factory, all the way to the cup. The theft is a result of a deadly mix of culpability by society officials, some unscrupulous private estates and millers and inaction by county governments and regulatory agencies.

Most of the stolen coffee is in parchment form, meaning it has to be taken to millers. A movement permit is needed to transport it or for it to be accepted for milling. Apart from the societies, only millers and private estates have such permits, which are now issued by county governments. While evidence has largely been circumstantial, unscrupulous millers and marketers have been suspected of being behind the increased spate of coffee thefts. Rogue middlemen, millers and marketers resorted to unorthodox ways to satisfy the local market, key among them, robberies.

This resulted in the use of village gangs, whose raids appear to have been well-planned by people who are able and well-versed in the logistics of storage or transporting such commodities. These robberies have are only threatening the farmers’ livelihoods but also international brands that may be re-selling stolen coffee without knowing it.

Isabella Nkonge, the Head of the Coffee Directorate, told the Nation that although county governments assumed most of the roles previously undertaken by the Agriculture Food Authority, they have always reminded farmers of measures they need to take to curb thefts. While the directorate has no jurisdiction to act on theft since it is a criminal offence, it can only act to de-license or impose other penalties provided for by the law on players found illegally dealing in coffee.

'Spontaneous acts'

Ms Nkonge dismisses claims that the robberies are “spontaneous acts by village thieves”, saying that the brazen theft of such bulky consignments mean there could be “a ready market for them”. “The industry has been grappling with increased malpractices such as theft of bean and poaching of crop. Coffee theft is an economic crime,” she adds.

Ms Nkonge says the robberies have impacted negatively on export earnings and the morale of small-scale growers. “We advised security alarms for factories, insurance cover for coffee and more security especially during the harvesting season. Some cooperatives and societies have taken this up and therefore the reduced number of robberies,” she says.

The Nation gathered that officials of some cooperatives have made common cause with crooked millers and middlemen to fleece members. In the process, some cooperatives that have their own mills do not process their coffee and, instead, choose to take it to commercial millers, who pay them kickbacks but fleece the members.

Subtle swindling

Some dealers have over the years been engaged in subtle swindling of coffee from farmers, earning millions of shillings from irregular sales. “There has been significant reduction in coffee theft since counties came in with a lot of force to protect farmers. This is compared to when the directorate or coffee board as previously know was individually tasked with fighting this vice,” Ms Nkonge said.

This year, the problem has become so widespread that in June, Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya sounded the alarm and warned farmers, dealers and agents involved of stern action.

Mr Munya, who spoke in Kenol town, noted that most of the thefts were inside jobs and that some millers were involved. He asked warehousemen and dealers to ensure they insisted on valid movement permits for all coffee consignments received in their premises as a sign of authenticity, transparency and traceability of the produce at all times.

Last year, the Senate committee on Agriculture asked the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to investigate millers and establish their source of coffee parchment in a bid to stop the thefts.

It’s now or never.

Committee chairperson Njeru Ndwiga recommended that coffee cooperative’s management committee members be held individually liable for stolen coffee. Towards the end of last year, and during the first three months of 2020, about six factories in Murang’a lost delivered coffee, incidents farmers claimed were inside jobs. In 2016 alone, Nyeri farmers affiliated to different societies lost more than 800 bags of the expensive P1s and P2 parchment worth Sh157 million.

As authorities continue to grapple with the thefts, farmers are questioning how the cartels manage to ferry their loot yet a close knitted procedure is required before a permit is issued to transporters.

Farmers the Nation spoke to have demanded proper investigations into some coffee societies to weed out officials whom they believe could be working with the gangs to steal their produce. “Coffee is still a mark of some standing and prosperity in our villages. It is what we depend on for our livelihoods. But for how long shall we complain about coffee theft?” posed a farmer, Jamleck Muiruri, from Wanjengi Coffee Factory in Murang’a. “It’s now or never. The Agriculture and Interior ministries should deal with this menace once and for all.”

Inside jobs

Patrick Muriuki from Kirinyaga’s Gituto Factory underscores the belief that the thefts are inside jobs orchestrated by cartels comprising factory management committees, millers and marketers. Some factory managers accused millers, marketers and dealers of using co-operative society officials to destabilise the industry. The group has allegedly been financing factions in co-operative societies, or colluding with crooked officials, to influence decisions on who is to mill and market the produce.

“Unscrupulous millers, marketers and even dealers collaborating with crooked co-operative society officials are behind the thefts. Leadership rows pitting coffee farmers against management of some factories has been blamed for the spate of coffee thefts in the region,” said David Mathenge, who delivers coffee to Gituto Factory in Kirinyaga.

Factory managers

In an interview with the Nation, Central Regional Commissioner Wilfred Nyagangwa said investigations have linked some factory managers to the thefts. He said they came up with a raft of recommendations that have been adopted by cooperatives to reduce coffee thefts. These include collaboration with security personnel, sub-county administrative officers and cooperatives officials. “No milled coffee should stay in the factory warehouse overnight,” he said.

Should coffee leave a factory warehouse without adequate information collated to the security personnel, factory managers will be the first to be held culpable for any stolen coffee, he added.

With the issuance of movement permit devolved to the county government, it is the prerogative of the factory management to inform the police whenever they intend to transport their coffee for provision of escort to the sale destination. “Failure of the management to inform us and ask for escort and protection, they will be handled as suspects upon loss of the coffee on transit,” said Mr Nyagangwa.

Nyeri Agriculture Executive James Wachihi said devolving of issuance of movement permits to the counties will ensure closer monitoring of the coffee to its destination.