Anger filled the cooperative hall more easily than a budget did.
By the time the open forum began, many members wanted Crown Ember gone. Others wanted the settlement money. A third group wanted the old advance facility preserved even if the exporter changed. Nobody wanted a beautiful traceability system that left them unable to buy fertilizer.
Baraka stood at the side with a marker, not at the center with a solution.
“Three options,” Muthoni said. “Put all three up.”
The finance adviser wrote them on the board.
Option one: accept a revised exporter arrangement with independent sample custody and narrower exclusivity.
Option two: move to multiple exporters while paying higher administration and financing costs.
Option three: build direct-sale capacity for selected micro-lots while keeping ordinary coffee in existing market channels.
No option was free.
That changed the tone.
Farmers argued about costs they could see. Who would pay for duplicate sample storage? Who would issue lot tokens? What happened when a card was lost? How much cash reserve was needed if an exporter no longer advanced money? Could a buyer reject coffee after seeing the farmer's name and still leave the cooperative with the loss?
Nje answered the operational questions. The finance adviser answered the cash questions. Baraka answered only where his role applied.
The final system was smaller than the first proposal.
Every farmer delivery would receive a lot token linked to the wet-mill batch. Sample pairs would be sealed under dual custody, one retained locally and one moving through the market channel. Any relabeling would create a visible revision instead of silently replacing the prior identity. The payout board would show base price, premium, deductions and the reason for later adjustments. Buyer-origin claims would have to trace back through those records.
“What about mistakes?” a farmer asked.
“They stay visible,” Nje said. “Corrected, not erased.”
Muthoni pointed at Baraka. “He likes that answer too much.”
The hall laughed.
They also designed a complaint route. A farmer could challenge a payout without surrendering the original delivery card. A clerk could correct an obvious typo, but the old value and reason for correction remained. A sample discrepancy triggered review before relabeling, not after sale.
Karanja raised the hardest question.
“What pays wages when a buyer delays?”
The finance adviser proposed a reserve funded by a small deduction from verified premium sales and a short-term credit line that did not pledge the entire next harvest. Members disliked the deduction until they compared it with the control hidden inside the previous advance.
“This is more expensive,” one man said.
“Yes,” the adviser replied.
“Then why call it better?”
“Because you can see the price.”
Muthoni wrote that sentence on the empty payout board.
The remedy discussion followed. Buyer compliance had agreed in principle that verified underpaid lots could receive restitution if the lot chain and prior buyer price were documented. Not every old complaint would qualify. The cooperative would not receive a giant sum simply because Crown Ember's process had failed.
Some members objected. They wanted the private settlement amount.
The lawyer reminded them what it purchased: silence and closure without source acknowledgment.
The room voted to reject the confidential settlement and continue with verified restitution plus open governance. It also rejected the seven-year exclusive washing-station agreement.
That choice carried a cost immediately. Crown Ember withdrew the easy advance facility.
No one applauded when the finance adviser wrote the new cash gap on the board.
Baraka liked that too. A real reform should be able to survive a number that made people uncomfortable.
Before adjournment, they assigned responsibilities. Nje owned processing-stage records, but not buyer negotiation. The committee controlled release of farmer data. Two members shared sample-custody authority. Buyer agreements required a source-identification clause. Baraka could advise on cupping and traceability but had no standing power to approve sales.
Karanja asked whether this meant the cooperative no longer trusted him.
Muthoni answered. “It means the system should still work on a day when we do not trust any one of us.”
That included her.
The rules passed.
Then Nje placed a small bag of fresh parchment on the table.
“First lot can start tomorrow,” she said.
Baraka looked at the new forms, the cost figures and the tired faces around the hall. He was tempted to explain why the design mattered.
Muthoni stopped him before he began.
“Tomorrow there are no speeches,” she said. “Tomorrow let's see if your system can carry a real bag.”