Leaders, farmers clash on verification exercise

Kanungu. Kanungu District officials and tea farmers have clashed with officials from the National Agriculture and Advisory Services (Naads) secretariat over the verification exercise for the tea seedlings supplied and planted in the financial year 2015/2016 worth Shs13 billion.

The tea nursery bed operators under their umbrella organisation of Kanungu Tea Nursery Bed Operators Association in July 2018 filed a case in the Commercial Court in Kampala over non-payment for the tea seedlings they supplied to government.

The parties, however, agreed to resolve the matter out of court.
During the mediation process, the Naads secretariat is said to have agreed to pay the money.
“We were surprised on Monday when the officials from the Naads secretariat stormed the district saying that they wanted to redo the verification exercise of the planted tea seedlings. We told them that we cannot repeat the exercise because the resolution at the mediation meeting was that Naads pays those who supplied seedlings.

“Now that the Naads secretariat has opted to breach the mediation resolutions, let us allow the courts of law to decide the fate of farmers,” Ms Josephine Kasya, the LC5 chairperson, said on Thursday.
She was addressing more than 300 tea farmers that convened at the Kanungu headquarters for a meeting.
Ms Kasya said: “Do not associate with the officials from the Naads secretariat that are moving around claiming that they are doing verification.

“Be patient and wait for the court’s decision on the matter or any directive from President Museveni, who initiated tea growing in the area in 2008 when he pledged government commitment to buy all the tea seedlings and supply them to farmers at no cost.”
The chairperson South-Western Tea Nursery Bed Operators and Growers Association, Mr Frank Byaruhanga, wondered why the Naads secretariat was trying to repeat the exercise for tea seedlings supplied in 2015 well knowing that some seedlings were destroyed during the dry season of 2017.

He added that why are such procedures not applied when distributing oranges, heifers, rice, and ginger.
“We are witnessing a scenario where the tea enterprises launched by President Museveni are being side-lined by the Naads secretariat yet the farmers are languishing in poverty and others are in hiding for fear of being arrested because they failed to pay the loans they injected in the tea enterprise,” Mr Byaruhanga said.

He added that on April 15, the Kanungu Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Mr Begumya Ntarwete, wrote to the Naads secretariat explaining that the verification tea seedling planting was conducted and the report filed on August 8, 2017 and that it was practically impossible to conduct a re-verification exercise on the same matter, but the Naads secretariat turned a deaf ear.
Mr Byaruhanga said their objective is either to waste government money in allowances or to frustrate farmers.

The head of technical services at the Naads secretariat, Dr Christopher Bukenya, on Saturday said he was waiting for a full report from the field officers that are doing the verification exercise.
The OWC spokesperson, Maj Tabaaro Kiconco, on Saturday said he cannot comment on the matter because for them [OWC] they are support the staff doing the verification.

The known contacts of minister of Agriculture Vincent Ssempijja, and Mr Christopher Kibanzanga, the state minister, were not available by press time.
Kanungu tea nursery bed representatives Godfrey Karabenda and Bernard Byamugisha said what Naads officials are doing is contempt of court and any farmer that associates with them will be committing a similar offence.

Daily Monitor has learnt that officials trying to do verification are from Naads, Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries and Operation Wealth Creation.
The verification has reportedly been sanctioned by the Office of the Prime Minister.

BACKGROUND

On April 25, Dr Christopher Bukenya, an official from the Naads secretariat, communicating on behalf of the entity’s executive director, Dr Sam Mugasi, wrote to CAO Kanungu saying the re-verification exercise of the planted tea seedlings will be conducted between April 29 and May 17 and requested him to give the Naads officials the necessary support during the exercise.
“Reference is made to my letter of March 1, 2017 requesting district local governments to verify all claims from nursery bed operators regarding tea seedlings planted without contracts in the various tea growing districts. Reference is also made to your submissions of the verification report dated October 26, 2017.

Based on the submission, the Naads secretariat has considered it necessary to conduct a joint verification to confirm the claims by the nursery bed operators from your district local government,” Dr Bukenya’s letter read in part.
On April 30, Mr Begumya wrote to the district production and marketing officer, Mr Peter Turiyo, advising him not to participate in the reverification exercise as the matter is before courts of law.

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