Mary Wambui, a 63-year-old tea farmer from the Mbugiti area in Gatanga Sub-county, is a living example of how improved tea earnings are transforming the lives of smallholder farmers.
Recently, Wambui installed a biogas system that now meets all her daily cooking needs, an investment she says would have been impossible without income from tea farming.
For years, Wambui struggled to collect firewood to use in her kitchen, often pruning trees on her farm or spending money on cooking gas.
The biogas system has not only eased her workload but has also improved her living conditions by keeping her kitchen clean and free from soot and clutter.
“This project would not have been possible without the tea bonus I received,” Wambui said.
The farmer has about 400 bushes of tea that produce roughly 1,000 kilograms of green leaf annually during seasons of average rainfall.
This year, she received Sh57,000 as her annual tea bonus, which enabled her to purchase and install the biogas system.
“There is no other activity on my farm that could have given me such money at once. I had planned to invest in this system from the beginning of last year,” she said.
In addition to the annual bonus, Wambui earns about Sh2,000 per month from tea deliveries. After paying her tea picker approximately Sh1,000, she uses the remaining income to support herself.
Tea farming, she notes, has provided her with a stable income that complements other subsistence activities on her farm.
She also keeps a dairy cow that supplies milk for household consumption and sale to neighbours, while her farm also provides most of her food needs.
She grows indigenous vegetables, arrowroots, sweet potatoes and cassava.
Wambui sells her tea through Ngere Tea Factory, the largest in Murang’a County and one of the top-performing factories nationally under the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA).
The factory serves over 9,000 farmers and paid out about Sh2 billion in annual bonuses in October 2025, significantly boosting household incomes and the local economy.
Ngere Tea Factory Chairperson James Githinji said the factory recorded the highest tea bonus payout among the 10 factories in the county and ranked fifth nationally.
“This performance is a result of good governance and the high-quality tea delivered by our farmers, which attracts premium prices at the auction,” Githinji said.
He noted that farmers received Sh25 per kilogram in monthly payments and Sh57 per kilogram as annual bonuses, adding that the factory had improved its national ranking from ninth position last year.
Githinji, who is also a KTDA Zone Two board member, revealed that Murang’a County emerged as the best-performing county in the country, with Sh13 billion paid to tea farmers, followed by Meru County with Sh9 billion.
He said the factory has been pursuing direct sales and product diversification to enhance farmer earnings.
Part of its produce is sold directly to buyers rather than through the Mombasa auction, a move that guarantees higher prices for farmers.
“This also ensures that the volume sold through the auction is manageable and easily absorbed by the market,” he explained, divulging that the factory has installed an orthodox tea processing plant, which became operational in December 2025.
He noted that the feedback from buyers has been positive and “once mass production begins, it will further improve farmer returns by reducing reliance on Black Crush-Tear-Curl (CTC) tea sold at the auction.”
Githinji noted that this development coincides with national government efforts to streamline the orthodox tea auction in Mombasa, which was launched in September to enhance speciality tea sales.
Ngere Tea Factory Vice Chairperson John Kamau said the recognition would motivate farmers to maintain high-quality production, noting that improved returns had demonstrated the value of quality tea.
Factory Manager Patrick Karanja said product diversification had expanded markets and boosted local consumption of value-added tea products.
“The factory produces Black CTC and Black Orthodox teas, including all CTC grades and flavoured varieties such as ginger and lemon for the local market,” he expounded.
Last year, the factory was awarded by the Tea Board of Kenya for producing the third-highest valued tea in the Commercial Manufacture Category.
This impressive performance also earned Ngere Tea Factory an award from the Murang’a County government as the best-performing tea factory in the county.
By Purity Mugo
