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18 January 2016
January 2016 19
Later that year I was transferred to Mwenge Central
Engineering. From the current day Mwenge Guest House
you could hardly see Itwara Factory as the view was
blocked by overgrown tea trees. The state of affairs was the
same at Muzizi and Bugambe. Bugambe was the worst of
all as both the fields and the factory had been abandoned
after the 1979 war.
In January 1995, as the field rehabilitation progressed,
there was an urgent need to rehabilitate and re-
commission the factory to match the progress in the fields.
I was then transferred to Bugambe, with one artisan, to
start cleaning up the factory and install processing
machines. On 29 May 1995, Bugambe produced black tea
again – for the first time since 1979.
In 1997, Kisaru Estate was acquired.The factory and field
having been abandoned since 1992, tea bushes had grown
close to 20 feet tall and the factory and other buildings
were homes to bats, snakes, wild pigs and other wild
animals. Elephants and buffaloes would graze right up to
the factory fence and compound. Though I was an
engineer, I was given the responsibility of overseeing the
rehabilitation of the fields by the then Group Manager,
Mr Mark Potter. At the same time I was responsible for
the renovation of the dilapidated buildings and putting up
new labour villages at Kisaru.
The way I experienced it, rehabilitation involved lopping
(cutting down the tea bush to a height of 1 metre), leaving
it to recover for about 60 days when bud break became
heavy, followed by normal pruning to a height of 45 cm
(18 inches). I worked with a workaholic Division Manager,
Mr Joseph Olera, who would hack at the tea tree with his
poorly equipped workers all day under the scorching tropical
sun. Joseph had previously gained tremendous experience
from the rehabilitation programme at Bugambe.
A fond memory following the rehabilitation was of the time
when my Manager challenged me to construct a tea nursery
shed (‘banda’) to accommodate seedlings for 10 Ha. Neither
he nor I had a clue how to go about it! I told him I would
construct something measuring 30 x 60 x 2.5 m and would
make extensions as required. A person with the right
skill/knowledge came along when I had completed it, and I
found I was almost right in terms of specs for the structure!
What I remember most with fondness and satisfaction
from that time is the support from my ‘boss’, who gave me
all the encouragement I needed in everything I did (I was
the only Estate Engineer to have been allocated a pick-up
truck ever!) and the fact that my colleagues, to this day,
appreciate my efforts at multi-skilling and making them
perform and work without the ‘boss’ around them.
Renovating Bugambe Factory
Rehabilitation - Kisaru Estate
Lopped Tea
Kisaru Estate
Mechanical Harvester
Overgrown Tea