Last week, the Pyrethrum Board of Kenya paraded a Chinese businesswoman who they said was in illegal possession of four metric tonnes of pyrethrum flowers.

This, the board noted, was the second such large-and illegal-consignment, an indication that there is growing "theft" of pyrethrum flowers in the country.

The trend is picking up due to the rise of middlemen "out to fleece the country of its foreign exchange generated from the lucrative industry."

Easy to say, but it is not difficult to see why farmers have opted to sell their produce through middlemen and why the market is thriving outside the Pyrethrum Board.

The board has a legal monopoly over the processing and marketing of pyrethrum in the country.

But years of mismanagement and theft have left the board financially on its knees and barely able to enforce its mandate.

Last week the Cabinet had to intervene by approving a decision by the board to sell off part of its assets to revive it.

Farmers have never been paid for their 2002/2003 deliveries, and with only a skeleton work force, service delivery is in limbo.

The law must give way to competition and allow farmers to sell to the best-priced buyer. It is the only sure way for the pyrethrum industry to survive.