The Red Hills of Kenya

Jambo from Kenya!

Swahili is the language spoken in this wonderful country.

Day 1: My adventure in Nairobi began with the call of the Hadada Ibis outside my hotel room early in the morning. The sun slowly rose and gave way to a cloudy sky.

A representative from Dormans, the leading exporter of coffee in Kenya, met with me to begin our adventures for the day. His name is Benjamin, and we will be spending the next week together traveling through Kenya and Tanzania. We soon headed to the Dormans Headquarters, situated just outside of Nairobi proper in the Tatu City Industrial Park, Ruiru.

Coffee production in Kenya is concentrated around the Central/West of the country, surrounding the capital city. Making travel relatively easy to visit some of these regions.

*Map of producing areas in Kenya (Dormans)*

Upon my arrival at Dormans, I was given a tour of their processing facilities, where they receive green coffee from dry mills. This coffee is further sorted using various machines and color sorters to remove any defected beans and to ensure the coffee is evenly sorted. This helps maintain quality in the end. Kenya has a specific grading system: AA, AB, PB and further lower quality grades. PB stands for Peaberry and are the result of when coffee cherries only contain one coffee seed (they typically contain two). These beans are small and round. Whereas AA and AB are larger, more uniform beans.

*Coffee sacks sorted at Dormans Warehouse*

After the tour, we ventured to Mchana Estate, the oldest and one of the largest farms in Kenya expanding over 400 hectares in Kiambu County. Coffee production in Kenya is comprised of 70% smallholders, and 30% estates. Smaller farmers are organized into Farmer Cooperative Societies (FCS) that help them process and market their coffee.

At Mchana, the team manage and grow SL28, SL34, Ruiru 11 and Batian, the main coffee varieties in Kenya. The skies were grey but soon the sun emerged as we traversed across the bright red soils of Kiambu. With so much history and experience, this estate knows how to grow high quantities of coffee. There were guard towers looking out over different corners of the farm for night watch which we were able to climb and see the expanse of coffee trees.

Afterwards, my host took me to the Kofinaf dry mill, the largest dry mill in Kenya, also located just outside of Nairobi. Here, I was welcomed by an enthusiastic team showing me how they receive parchment (coffee still with a thin shell on the outside) and how they begin to record, grade, and mill the coffee. It was quite a complex system with so much organization. Machines removed the husk of the coffee, sorted, and graded the coffee. A lab then cupped the coffee to assess the quality. I was astonished how this mill was able to maintain so much precision.

We bid the team farewell, then headed out to Karatu to meet with the Gitwe Farmer Cooperative Society. As we gained elevation, the air cooled, and the vegetation grew lush. We chatted with the FCS for a bit, saw the wet mill (in Kenya, they call wet mills Factories) where they cherries are brought from producers to be washed, fermented, and dried. We ventured to their other Factory in Karinga and saw a similar setup with metal tables situated along the slope of a hillside. Raindrops began to fall as we said goodbye, ah!

Complex, huh? It was quite a full day, and on the drive home, I was so mesmerized by how intricate the coffee system in Kenya is. They are currently undergoing some shifts with how coffee is sold, with new government regulations changing some of the rules. Coffee is now 100% sold via the auction, which is rare amongst coffee-producing countries. I could go on for a few more pages about that…

Overall…such a beautiful, kind, and peaceful producing country thus far. Birds of many species greeted me, chanting at me as I walked by, hopping around the red soils of the farms. My favorite was the Weaver, with an unusual call, building hanging nests in giant palm trees.

Such a beautiful day! Eager to learn more, see more, hear more birds, and drink more coffee.

Asante Kukuona!

Nice to meet you in Swahili.

Day 2: Woke up in Nairobi, listening to the sound of rain outside. Today we are heading to Kirinyaga and Embu, coffee-producing regions close to Mt. Kenya, roughly two hours away from the city.

My guides pick me up in the morning and we begin our journey to Kirinyaga. It is here that we meet with representatives from the Rwama Farmer Cooperative Society (FCS) and a member of Coffee Management Services (CMS), Peter Kimata. CMS are marketing agents for farmers and cooperatives, assisting them with the milling and sale of their coffee after processing.

*Rwama Farmers Cooperative Society Office*

The Rwama FCS was started in 1997, bringing together producers from the area, providing them with washing stations to process their coffee, and selling their coffee on the market. The FCS has three factories where producers can bring their cherries (Muthingini, Mburu, Kimatu). There are 1,700 members of the FCS.

The FCS also provides support such as training for farmers on how to diversify their crops, improve their nutrition, in addition to teaching them how to improve their agricultural practices and providing agricultural inputs for pests/diseases and fertilizer.

We then venture to the Kimatu Washing Station, where there is an eco-pulper to efficiently remove the coffee cherry from the seed, fermentation tanks for the coffee to soak and break down the remaining mucilage, washing channels, and an array of 37 drying tables, where the coffee will be dispersed to dry in the open sun. A typical set up for a coffee factory in Kenya. This factory opened in 2021, and 865 producers, half women, bring their coffee here. Quite impressive!

Next, we travel to Embu, the neighboring region, to visit with the Kibugu FCS. Eric Marimi chats with us in his office about the FCS, which was started in 1964, and now they run five factories (Gicherori, Nyerma, Kathawa, Ndunduri, Gikirima). There are 4,500 active members who deliver cherry to the factories, roughly 40% are women. He mentions that there was a 15% loss in crop yields this previous harvest due to the Coffee Berry Disease.

The FCS has an agronomist that visits the farms to ensure farmers are maintaining good agricultural practices. Additionally, the FCS will disperse agricultural inputs or advances for school fees before farmers are paid to assist them in between harvests.

We also spent quite some time discussing the change in the milling and selling of coffee after the shift in government regulation. Eric mentions to us that the coffee from the fly crop (payment normally received in October) only just received payment. He is predicting something similar, but the main crop is nearly ten times the size of the fly and he hopes payment will come sooner. Many people I have encountered are perplexed and worried about this shift in regulations, hoping for it to return to how it was prior to government involvement. An intricate and complex system, indeed.

*Kibugu Farmers Cooperative Society Office*

Shortly after, we visit the Gicherori Factory that was started in the 1980s. 800 farmers bring their cherries here to be processed on the 85 tables situated along the hillside of this beautiful area. Sparrows sat above, chirping to us below as we wandered around the demo plot of coffee trees, used to show producers how to properly manage their land.

Our last stop of the day was to visit the Kamavendi Farm, an impressive 8-hectare enterprise run by Peter Mbature and his family. He was quite impressive, educated, and eager to improve. He processes his own coffee and leads a collection of similar farmers in his own group. Natural and Anaerobic Natural coffee was drying in his well-designed greenhouse where he told us about how eager he is to work with more roasters and improve his quality. He also feels that producers should learn more about cupping and coffee quality. His farm was started in 1958 by his grandfather, taken over by his father, and now him and his sister, Gladys. It is a family farm, and so well-organized, forward-thinking, I was quite impressed. This is different from the typical farm in Kenya, which may be much smaller, without their own processing facilities. Peter does not rely on an FCS and dries his own coffee. He is hopeful for the future of Kenyan coffee, which made me feel there is a bright future ahead for Kenya with producers like Peter.

A long day, and a long journey back to Nairobi. So much to reflect on in Kenya. With all the changes and shifts in how coffee is being marketed and sold. So complex, that I struggled to grasp everything. All I know is that the producers, the cooperatives, and the other coffee groups are working hard to ensure farmers receive the price they deserve for the excellent coffee they grow. Curious what will happen!

Kahawa.

Coffee in Swahili.

Day 3: My last day venturing to the coffee-producing lands of Kenya! My guide, Benjamin, and our driver, David, collected me in the morning as we ventured towards Mt. Kenya, once again, to visit a couple of Factories (wet mills).

The drive was around two hours, we passed by beautiful, expansive fields of tea and rice – two other important crops for Kenya. We soon arrived in Kirinyaga, where the soil was bright red, the small city junctions busy with people. For a moment, we were lost and needed to get directions which was quite exciting! Snaking through the maze of these small dirt roads.

Soon we arrived at the New Ngariama Farmer Cooperative Society (FCS) Kamwangi Factory. The FCS was started in 1997, yet the factory has been collecting cherries since 1983, previously associated with a different FCS. The Factory Manager, Edwin Gilobi, met us and began our tour. We visited the weighing area, saw the pulpers where the cherries are rushed through a machine to have their pulp removed, the coffee sorted, and rushed through channels of water into fermentation tanks. The tanks held the coffee to begin the breakdown of the external mucilage. Once fermentation is completed, the coffee is rushed through more channels to be washed and soon dispersed on raised beds to dry in the sun. Phew!

This Factory had a mix of tables outside (90) and inside a greenhouse (16) also called a solar dryer. The coffee dries for a set amount of time in both areas before being gathered and placed in a warehouse to be bagged and sent to the dry mills.

There are 9,000 members involved with the New Ngariama FCS, 4,000 of which bring their cherries to the Kamwangani Factory. The sun began to beat down on us as we walked through the tables along the hillside. It was a beautiful day!

We hopped into the car to head down the road to the Kiamugumo Factory, where the Manager, James, met us. A similar set up here, a collection area, sorting, pulping, channels, fermentation, and washing before being dried on tables in the open sun.

This Factory has been in operation for 8 years, collecting cherries from 2,000 producers, 700 of which are women. These producers generally grow coffee on land smaller than 1 hectare, and deliver their cherry on foot to the wet mill. There are 110 tables to dry the coffee, and the team here were gradually beginning to transition the wooden tables to metal ones. A costly investment, but worthwhile.

*Kiamugumo Drying Tables and Washing Channel*

We bid everyone farewell, waved goodbye to the sorters hand sorting through the dried parchment to remove any lower quality beans, and headed on our way. Today was a short but really informative day. Each Factory I visited had a similar set up and executed excellent organization. The sorting, drying, and cataloguing process at all Factories was astonishing. I am quite impressed with Kenya. No wonder the coffee tastes so great from these hills.

Monday, I head to Tanzania, so I have a weekend to venture around Nairobi and drink some local coffee. Stay tuned for Tanzania!

Jambo from Kenya!

Asante Kukuona!

Kahawa.

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