Elections for tea directors were yesterday marked by protests, boycotts and confusion over a change in the voting system.

Farmers rejected proposals to switch to a polling system based on share strength, saying it would unfairly give a few of them powers to impose unpopular leaders through their higher number of allocated votes.

Discontent among farmers has in the past disrupted tea picking and processing activities, leading to shortages at the Mombasa Tea Auction, pushing up prices.

Besides the five voting rights each grower gets on registration, bonus shares were allocated last year based on a farmer's leaf delivery, meaning large scale growers have more say in the running of the tea factories.

Some of the Kenya Tea Development Agency factories that boycotted the polls are in Kirinyaga, Meru, Embu, Kericho, Bureti, Nyeri, Kiambu and Maragua, where farmers demanded a return to the one-man-one-vote queue voting method. Even where the polls took place, such as in Nyamira with 2,900 shareholders, turnout was unusually low.

"Any system that is seen to discriminate and take away the democratic right of tea farmers is unacceptable. A change of the current system must be agreed upon first," said Bureti MP Franklin Bett.

The KTDA company secretary, Mr John Kennedy Omanga, confirmed that the elections did not take place in all the factories, saying new poll dates would be announced. But he said polling had taken place in 44 of the 54 KTDA-managed factories and that 102 directors had been elected.

"The elections were satisfactory in most tea growing areas in the Rift Valley, Western, Nyanza, Central and Eastern provinces where we had an 85 per cent turn out," he said.

At Bureti's Litein Tea Factory, farmers opposed the new voting system and chased away the deputy returning officer and KTDA manager, Mr William Ruto.

"We were at the buying centre as from 8.30 am up to 1.00 pm but 25 voters took away the ballot boxes while the rest watched. We had to call off the elections," said Mr Elisha Belyon, the presiding officer.

At Sosiot polling centre in Kericho, farmers rejected the secret ballot, which they said had been abused, opting for the old queuing method.

The Kenya Union of Small Scale Tea Owners Association ( Kusstoa) named Kimunye, Kangaita, Weru, Kinoro and Kionyo in Central Province as some of the areas that boycotted the poll.

"Farmers are opposed to the new method that KTDA is imposing on them," Mr George Kinyua, the association secretary general told the Business Daily on phone.

Mr Kinyua said the association would start a nationwide campaign to bar newly-elected directors from assuming office until their grievances were addressed.

Elections at Kipchimchim, Kapmaso and Roret went on without incident, while those at Kapkoros, Kapset, Mogogosiek, Kapkatet and Iriaini, Gitugi, Chinga, and Gathuthi in Nyeri were also concluded.

Election papers in Gianchore factory in Kisii, however, contained errors and the elections were called off.

Farmers in Nyeri's Ragati, the oldest factory in the country that was formed in 1957, boycotted the poll, saying the new system barred voting by proxy.

The formula of issuance of bonus shares was based on delivery of green leaf by every grower to the factory. The resultant effect was that each grower received bonus shares commensurate to their delivery of green leaf to the factory for July 1, 2006 to June 30 2007.

KTDA manages 54 factories on behalf of over 430,000 farmers. Each is run by a board of six directors. Yesterday's elections were meant to fill two positions in every factory under a system where two directors retire on rotation each year.

(Additional reporting by Maureen Ongwae, Sollo Kiragu, Solomon Mburu and Wangui Maina)