Murang'a: Mary Wambui, a 63-year-old tea farmer from the Mbugiti area in Gatanga Sub-county, is a living example of how improved tea earnings are transforming the lives of smallholder farmers. Recently, Wambui installed a biogas system that now meets all her daily cooking needs, an investment she says would have been impossible without income from tea farming. For years, Wambui struggled to collect firewood to use in her kitchen, often pruning trees on her farm or spending money on cooking gas. The biogas system has not only eased her workload but has also improved her living conditions by keeping her kitchen clean and free from soot and clutter. According to Kenya News Agency, Wambui received Sh57,000 as her annual tea bonus this year, enabling her to purchase and install the biogas system. She has about 400 bushes of tea that produce roughly 1,000 kilograms of green leaf annually during seasons of average rainfall. In addition to the annual bonus, Wambui earns about Sh2,000 per month from tea deliveries. A fter paying her tea picker approximately Sh1,000, she uses the remaining income to support herself. Tea farming has provided her with a stable income that complements other subsistence activities on her farm. She also keeps a dairy cow for milk and grows indigenous vegetables, arrowroots, sweet potatoes, and cassava. Wambui sells her tea through Ngere Tea Factory, the largest in Murang'a County and one of the top-performing factories nationally under the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA). The factory serves over 9,000 farmers and paid out about Sh2 billion in annual bonuses in October 2025, significantly boosting household incomes and the local economy. Ngere Tea Factory Chairperson James Githinji said the factory recorded the highest tea bonus payout among the 10 factories in the county and ranked fifth nationally. Githinji noted that farmers received Sh25 per kilogram in monthly payments and Sh57 per kilogram as annual bonuses, adding that the factory had improved its national ranking from ninth positio n last year. Murang'a County emerged as the best-performing county in the country, with Sh13 billion paid to tea farmers, followed by Meru County with Sh9 billion. The factory has been pursuing direct sales and product diversification to enhance farmer earnings, ensuring higher prices and manageable auction volumes. Vice Chairperson John Kamau emphasized that the recognition would motivate farmers to maintain high-quality production. Factory Manager Patrick Karanja highlighted that product diversification had expanded markets and boosted local consumption of value-added tea products. The factory produces Black CTC and Black Orthodox teas, including all CTC grades and flavoured varieties such as ginger and lemon. Last year, Ngere Tea Factory was awarded by the Tea Board of Kenya for producing the third-highest valued tea in the Commercial Manufacture Category and was recognized by the Murang'a County government as the best-performing tea factory in the county.