The gender norms oppressing women in tea farms

With baskets latched on their backs, farmers brace the morning chills in Nyeri County as they move from one tea bush to another picking the recommended two leaves and a bud.

The tea sector is currently laden with a myriad of challenges stemming from poor payment, and women, the main heavy lifters in the multibillion shilling industry, feel underplayed.

Apart from picking tea, they also weed, tend to their spouses’ farms and in turn, surrender their financial independence.

Men are traditionally the farm owners; however, seldom are they actively present in the farms plucking tea - a mandate delegated to their wives alongside tea pickers.

A spot check across the five tea growing zones in Othaya, Tetu and Mathira in the county reveal that more women spend time in the tea farms than men.

Fulltime job

Ms Mary Nderitu clocks in for duty at 6am to enable pick and deliver tea, at least thrice a day, at Rwatheini tea buying centre from where it is designated for Gitugi Tea Factory.

The fulltime job dictates that she does not retire for the day until her tea is weighed and collected at the collection centre.

“You have to be in the farm early so that you can pick the most tea before the scorching sun wears you off,” she says.

Despite the farm being her husband’s, she mostly picks the tea alone, while also juggling chores that include attending to her children, livestock and food crops at the farm.

“The task is heavier on us, women,” she says.

Her desire to gain some control over production and income, through acquisition of a tea selling account – simply referred to as ‘number’ among tea farmers, has been the debate for years. This is because her family does not have enough tea bushes to allow fragmentation of the farm.

Factory numbers

Farmers are not allowed to fragment tea farms with below 500 tea bushes – such do not get registration.

“The factory ‘numbers’ are a preserve for men,” she states.

Revered as the heads of the family, men are solely tasked with the responsibility of making major household decisions, including income allocation, which ends up affecting how farms and entire households are managed.

"Being the owner of the farm, my husband is consequently registered as the farmer supplying tea the factory, which allows him sole access to the tea income that is wired to his bank account,” Ms Wanjiru says.

Each month, farmers receive Sh16 for a kilo of green leaf collected. At the end of the year, they receive the balance popularly known as 'bonus', to which Gitugi Tea Factory paid out Sh26.35 per kilo. Around April and May, the farmers received a mini-bonus of Sh5 per kilo of green leaf.

Women here say that despite spending almost 10 hours in the farm, they have no say in the utilisation of the tea incomes.

"Our livelihoods are determined by the productivity and allocation of income from this plantation... what we eat, how much we earn and how we live. And these decisions are solely in the hands of men," Ms Wanjiru says.

She notes that without their knowledge, men have been acquiring loans from lending institutions. The women only discover this when farmers are receiving their money at the end of the month and their husbands’ payslips have nothing to cater for their basic needs at home.

"Most men squander the money buying alcohol. Some misuse it to a point that even educating children becomes a huge task," noted Ms Wanjiru.

To break the overreliance on their husbands for sustenance, the women have resorted to becoming casual labourers at larger tea farms like the Nyayo Tea Zones.

Once done picking tea in their ‘husbands’ farms, they cross over to the estates and pick tea for Sh10 per kilo.

Self-help community

They have also formed women and mixed gender self-help community groups (Chamas) through which they save money and lend to members in need.

"Being paid labourers in the tea estates and members in the chamas have enabled us to have our own money, albeit little," says Ms Esther Kaguyo, a farmer.

Tea is among the leading cash crops and thrives in wet climatic areas and as a result, most tea farmers suffer from arthritis, back and shoulder aches.

"We have bruises on our legs and thighs because of brushing them against sharp tea stumps, from previous pruning. Moreover, prolonged carrying of the baskets hurts the shoulders, though the heavier the basket, the better the pay," notes Ms Kaguyo.

Lack of protective gear largely contributes to these ailments as the farmers work in their regular clothes. Some wear two or three layers of clothes to protect themselves from injuries.  But these clothes tear easily and quickly.

A few farmers who can afford it have a sack with a polythene lining designed to protect them from the wetness and tears in the farms. Each sack goes for Sh250 to Sh300.

Farmers with no health insurance cannot access healthcare, yet the pain and injuries force some to abandon tea picking, their only source of income.

"As farmers constantly caught up in a vicious cycle of debt, we do not have the luxury of staying at home due to illnesses as tea picking is a daily activity save for public holidays," adds Ms Kaguyo.

Contribute voluntarily

The Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) provides Majani Insurance, where farmers contribute voluntarily according to their preference. It covers their admission to hospital.

"With a pay below Sh30 per kilo of tea, it becomes difficult to spare some money for in-patient insurance cover," she says.

Mr John Kiragu, a farm manager says the pay-out for tea should range between Sh50 and Sh60 per kilo to ensure farmers’ needs are met.

"These farmers cannot even afford to have a lunch break or the protective gear they need to avert the health complications because of the poor pay this crop fetches," he says.
Mr Kiragu tasks the tea agency to provide free protective gear to the farmers as corporate social responsibility and increase their pay to an average of Sh60 per kilo of green leaf they deliver to factories.

The challenges affect both men and women.

Corrupt extension officers

For the past two months, Ms Mercy Kamau has been waiting to get her registration (number) at Gitugi Tea Factory as delays and un-procedural postponement mar the process. She attributes this to lack of goodwill from corrupt extension officers who are always asking for a bribe to fast-track the process.

"Woe unto you if you refuse to part with chai  ... it’s hard to get services without parting with a particular amount," she says.

Mr Benson Wachira, a tea farmer in Othaya says despite owning the farms, the poor payments are pushing them over the edge.

"We are impoverished as those sitting in office orchestrate how to enrich themselves with our crop," he says.

Mr Wachira echoes sentiments that there are laws that have shut women out in the running of tea business at the grassroots.

It is required that farmers have at least 1, 800 tea bushes and before segmenting them into smaller portions for their wives or children, they have to seek permission from the local chief.

"In case of the demise of a spouse, they go through a strenuous process to get that factory number and after acquiring it, they start off as new members instead of carrying on with the activities and benefits accrued such as shares of the deceased spouse," notes Mr Wachira.

Cultural belief

Ms Muthoni Waithanji, the solution to these woes is increased payments to farmers and a transformation of cultural norms that deny women ownership of productive assets like registration numbers.

"Women are denied numbers because men have no alternative income or livelihood options and the cultural belief that giving up tea bushes makes them lose their authority to their wives," she says.

The farmers say payments improve if proposed tea regulations 2020 are implemented.
Ms Waithanji tasks the tea agency to organise seminars across its 55-affiliated factories to change gender norms that oppress women, such as denying them numbers.

She further says the resource curse – the perennial financial resource scarcity associated with a highly valuable foreign exchange earner – has perennially triggered tension associated with domestic conflict and violence as well as a sense of insecurity by men, which have pushed many men to alcoholism.