Tobacco Farmers Want Bill to Address Poor Prices

Source from:  The Nation (Nairobi) Elisha Otieno 11/24/2004

Nyanza's more than 5,000 tobacco growers are angry with the MPs who attended the fun-filled retreat at the Coast paid for by the tobacco companies. The farmers are demanding that the MPs support the Tobacco Control Bill and make it address their poverty. Most of them complained they lived in abject poverty because the cigarette makers - BAT, Mastermind and Stancom - paid them a pittance for their crop deliveries. In Migori and Kuria, they want the MPs to support the Bill without amendments and to provide for a tobacco control board. "We are the producers of the raw materials used in the sub-sector and yet we are some of the poorest farmers in the country," said farmer Maurice Chacha yesterday. "The price of leaf should be increased to conform with the world's market prices." Speaking in Migori Town, farmer Walter Onyango suggested that the proposed board be mandated to regulate leaf prices and stem exploitation by tobacco companies. "With all the health risks we are exposed to, our demand for good pay should not be wished away," he added. Kuria MP Wilfred Machage, who attended the Mombasa talks, has been quoted in the media as vowing to support the Bill in its present form when it comes to Parliament. Dr Machage, who is an assistant minister, says tobacco farming is a liability due to poor pay by cigarette companies. Enditem