Kirinyaga fea farmer counts losses after landslide

Peter Muchira from Kamweiti village in Kirinyaga County on October 19, 2019 points at his tea farm which was washed away by a landslide following heavy rainfall. PHOTO | GEORGE MUNENE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • This came as a double blow for Peter Muchira who only recently received a meagre pay in tea bonus.
  • The father of two now says he has been reduced to a pauper and he is appealing to well-wishers for help.
  • Gichugu MP Gichimu Githinji called on Kirinyaga County government to use the disaster management funds to help him.

A farmer in Kamweiti village, Kirinyaga County is counting losses after his one-acre tea farm was swept away by landslide triggered by heavy rains.

This came as a double blow for Peter Muchira, 43, who only recently received a meagre pay in tea bonus.

The landslide destroyed all his tea bushes on Friday night.

"I was a sleep when I heard a loud noise like and dashed out to find out what was happening. On reaching my farm, I was shocked to find that all my tea bushes had been uprooted and washed down to the nearby river," said Mr Muchira.

APPEAL FOR HELP

The father of two now says he has been reduced to a pauper and he is appealing to well-wishers for help.

"The Kenya Tea Development Agency paid me peanuts and now the Mother Nature has wreaked havoc on my farm. To me this a disaster," he added.

His mother, Ms Margaret Gakindu, said she sympathised with her son who depends on the tea for survival.

"My son generates his income from the one acre of tea which I allocated to him. Now that the landslide has destroyed his tea, he has been left without any other source of income," she said.

Gichugu MP Gichimu Githinji said the farmer has incurred heavy losses and called on the Governor Anne Waiguru's administration to use the disaster management funds to help him.

"The county sets aside a disaster management fund every financial year. Some of the money should be given to the farmer whose crop has been wiped out," the MP said.