The government has assured farmers that proper public participation will be conducted across the country before implementation of the Direct Settlement System. This follows a ruling made by Kerugoya High Court on November 18.
Justice Edward Muriithi issued the orders suspending implementation of the system until May 20, declaring that public participation was not conducted in 16 coffee-growing counties.
The ruling followed a petition filed by farmers challenging the DSS system, and told the court that they were not consulted when a commercial bank was appointed to handle direct payments.
The DSS system was introduced in 2023 and allowed payments made through the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) to be routed through a settlement account managed by a bank after which a percentage of the money is sent to farmers while the remainder is submitted to coffee co-operative societies.
Commissioner of Co-operatives David Obonyo said the government will obey the court’s orders.
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“We will not impose regulations that farmers don’t want. We will ensure there are proper mechanisms for participation and dialogue with farmers so we can have an amicable solution,” he said.
In November last year, the co-operatives ministry issued a directive indicating that DSS would take effect in June and urged coffee co-operative societies to submit farmers’ data for payments.
Farmers, however, strongly rejected plans to pay them directly through their mobile phones, saying this would impoverish them by discouraging saving and cause the collapse of co-operatives.
Currently, the payments are made directly to the coffee co-operative societies that make deductions for their operations and payment of loans taken on behalf of farmers before forwarding the rest to farmers’ bank accounts.
By Our reporter
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