The Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) has a new man at the top. Kanja Thuku took over as acting group chief executive officer on Tuesday, Capital FM reported. He replaces Francis Miano, who has gone on annual and terminal leave.
Thuku is no outsider. He currently serves as KTDA Group Director in charge of Special Programmes. According to Capital FM, he has more than 34 years of experience in agriculture and management.
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture from the University of Nairobi. He has also trained in project management, logistics and fleet management, food manufacturing, agricultural practices and sustainability strategies. The Board said his experience and institutional knowledge would support the agency's leadership transition.
The Board said Miano's exit followed the agency's Human Resource Policy and Procedure Manual and a directive it had issued. It gave no further reasons. KTDA Holdings Chairman Enos Njeru thanked the outgoing chief in a statement. He said the Board sincerely appreciated Miano's dedicated service to the organisation and wished him well in the future.
The change matters well beyond the boardroom. KTDA sits at the centre of Kenya's smallholder tea industry. It oversees tea processing and marketing through factories owned by smallholder farmers.
The agency manages a network of tea factories serving hundreds of thousands of growers. Its leadership is critical to the sector's operations, to farmer earnings and to the competitiveness of Kenyan tea abroad, Capital FM noted. The Board has not said how long Thuku will serve in an acting role.