EP 12 From two leaves and a bud to many stories and a cup
The tea about tea is served by our little teapot for the night, Wangu wa Majani, who works closely with the Tea Board of Kenya, Oxfam, Fairtrade Africa and is the founder of Maison Chai.
It is said tea originated from China when Chinese Emperor Shen Nung was boiling water and leaves fell in and he liked the taste. Legend also has it that people in China’s Shang Dynasty (1500–1046BC) first used tea as medicine. It’s possible that tea was discovered as early as the 12th century BC, when the king of the time was said to have received various teas as a tribute from tribal heads.
Overtime people realised the value of tea as a beverage, and like every other invention under the sun, tea found it’s way around the globe shaping various cultures with people constantly discovering and updating the versatility of tea.
In Japan, tea found it’s lee way through Buddhist monks. They first brought tea from China to Japan in the 9th century, but it was Zen monk Eisai who popularized matcha in the 12th century, laying the foundation for Japan’s distinctive tea ceremony culture. Over the centuries, Japan developed a refined tea tradition through deep cultural and spiritual exchange with China. Today, traditional Japanese teas like matcha and sencha remain deeply rooted in centuries-old customs.
There’s way more to tea than you think. There’s white tea — low in caffeine and basically tastes like flowers in water. Then you’ve got green tea, yellow tea, and oolong tea (one of the most expensive teas in the world). Purple tea is its own thing; rich in antioxidants and has a cultivar unique to Kenya. And then there’s Pu-erh, a fermented tea that can go for as much as $8,000 per kilo. Black tea comes in two styles: Orthodox and CTC (Crush, Tear, Curl)and lastly masala tea;spicy, bold and always comforting.
Tea was introduced to Kenya during the colonial era. Williamson Tea, originally founded in 1869, expanded into Kenya in 1903 after acquiring estates in Kericho. That same year, the Caine brothers began tea trials in Limuru, marking the start of local cultivation. In 1925, James Finlay & Co(now Brown’s) joined the industry, further expanding commercial tea farming. These plantations were part of broader efforts to grow the British East Africa Company (IBEACO). (For more context on the “White Highlands” and how they helped fund colonization in Kenya, read our article on the colonial history of police brutality.)
Tea is currently grown in over 15 counties in Kenya. The democratization of tea began formally in the mid-1950s, when African smallholder farmers were finally allowed to cultivate tea — a right previously restricted under colonial rule. This shift followed the recommendations of the Swynnerton Plan, which aimed to integrate African farmers into the cash economy by granting land titles and access to lucrative crops like tea. With support from the colonial government and international partners, small-scale tea farming was introduced in regions like Nyeri and Murang’a. Training programs, seedling distribution, and supervised planting schemes were initiated to ensure quality and consistency. These early efforts laid the foundation for structured smallholder participation in the tea value chain, eventually leading to the need for an institution to manage and support this growing sector; setting the stage for the formation of KTDA.
The Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) is a private company owned by approximately 600,000 smallholder tea farmers across 16 tea-growing counties in Kenya. These farmers are shareholders in 54 tea factory companies, which collectively own KTDA and its nine subsidiary companies. To meet increased production demands, some of the 54 tea companies have established 17 satellite factories in nearby areas to process additional green leaf. This brings the total number of smallholder-owned tea factories to 71. The subsidiaries play a crucial role in enhancing the value of the tea value chain, each subsidiary offers specialized services ranging from tea trading and packaging to financing, energy and insurance ensuring that smallholder farmers benefit across every stage of the tea value chain e.g Kenya Tea Packers Limited (KETEPA).
During the Nyayo era, 32 tea zones were established to stop wealthy Kenyans from buying up all the land and as forest buffer plantations. The zones supplied tea to KTDA factories, however in 2015 KTDA withdrew from most zones due to reports of forest encroachment and mismanagement of funds, as of now only seven zones still supply KTDA.
Despite being one of Kenya’s largest exports, tea remains a severely underpaid industry. The country’s focus on mass production has cemented its role as a cheap, anonymous commodity in the global market often used in blends with little recognition of origin.
“I once saw tea from Nandi going for £300 per 100 grams, and there was literally no more information about where exactly it came from other than that it was ‘from Nandi’.”
— Wangu wa Majani
European and Asian buyers repackage Kenyan tea into premium blends, contributing to a £12 billion global value chain yet Kenya earns just 8% of that value. The industry remains trapped in a colonial commodity model, shaped by multinational corporations that prioritize mass-market tea bags over orthodox, craft-quality production. This is reinforced by a focus on CTC (Crush, Tear, Curl) processing, which favors volume over value.
Retailers particularly UK supermarkets further entrench this system through bulk buying at near-auction prices, removing producer names from packaging and rejecting smallholder specialty teas for lacking brand recognition. These practices ensure profits stay at the top, while farmers remain invisible.
Meanwhile, Vietnam is overtaking Kenya in production. Kenya’s tea cultivars require highly skilled labor and are unsuitable for mechanization, making it harder to compete. Climate change has further worsened the situation, disrupting seasonal patterns and making farming increasingly unpredictable.
Amid these challenges, the reality on the ground is stark: the average tea picker earns just KSh 200 per day, living in abject poverty, despite being the backbone of a globally profitable industry. Fair Trade certified companies, on the other hand, receive premiums that go directly back to the communities through development projects. That’s why it’s important to buy tea with a factory name on it ; it supports ownership, transparency and community growth.
Tea factory shareholders in Kenya can learn a lot from the dairy sector. Take Githunguri, for example. Everything in that town tells the story of Fresha; a product with identity, pride and ownership. The farmers believe in their product. That mindset has shaped a thriving local economy and brand culture. We need to create that same culture in tea.
Kenyan tea is magical. With proper investment, we can turn it into a premium global brand. In China, tea dried over pinewood is considered high-end: imagine what we could do with indigenous trees like Mugumo. Taiwan produces very little tea compared to Kenya but earns far more because it focuses on value and storytelling. Japan, despite its matcha craze, is currently facing a production crisis. Kenya, with its diverse climate conditions, has endless potential to grow a wide range of tea cultivars and to lead the world in both quality and volume.
But we can’t build that future without addressing inequity and labor conditions, especially for women. Women make up over 40% of the labor force in tea farms, yet own less than 5% of land. Men are still paid more for the same work and women often endure unsafe working conditions.
This is where the need for initiatives like the partnership with UN Women creating a Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Committee shines. In 2022 KTDA & UN Women came together to promote gender equality as an integral part of the business and a lot of effort has gone into supporting KTDA Staff, smallholder tea farmers, and other stakeholders in tea growing communities with others like ETP and Women Win.
These initiatives were founded to empower women across all levels of the tea value chain Women at the Wheel exists to show young girls a different path in tea. A path where they can lead, own and grow. If women can drive, they can be clerks: they can be anything.
The BBC documentary, The True Cost of Our Tea, exposed the shocking extent of abuse and exploitation in some of Kenya’s largest tea estates. The allegations were so severe that several multinational corporations exited the country. It became more expensive to manage the scandals than to run the business. This documentary is a wake-up call and a clear argument for building ethical and transparent tea systems. Women at the Wheel doesn’t exist because of those scandals but their existence proves why such initiatives are necessary. This documentary was a wake-up call and a clear argument for building ethical and transparent tea systems.
As a Kenyan, you don’t need to own a farm to make a difference:
Be an ambassador for Kenyan tea.
Use the hashtag #ValueInEverySipKE to share stories and educate your community. Visit your local tea factory and advocate for Fair Trade certification.
Support and invest in youth- and women-led tea enterprises.
Participate in industry-shaping events like the Mombasa Roundtable in October 2025, where pluckers, farmers and other stakeholders come together to plan a fairer future.
With an ethical and strategic restructuring of the tea industry we can elevate Kenyan tea to luxury status, where farmers get value for their work and every sip tells a story.