It’s still a dog’s life for many plantation workers

Tea pickers at a plantation in Kericho. According to Dickson Sang, the Kericho chapter secretary of the Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union, individuals who operate the controversial tea harvesting machines are particularly at risk of musculoskeletal disorders. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Farms are in an exploitative relationship with staff and are often embroiled in wars with locals over land and other natural resources.

  • David Omulama, a trade unionist, says the problems plaguing flower farm workers arise partly because of the Regulation of Wage Order.
  • Those working in tea farms are aggrieved by, among other things, the health hazards they are exposed to while at work.

With last month’s rupture of a dam in the Patel Coffee Estate in Nakuru County, which claimed 47 lives, something else gushed out: The bitter-sweet relations between the farm owners and locals.

It emerged that there were dirty little secrets about the operations of the farm that may never have been revealed to the public, such as the way workers — who earn Sh270 a day — lose their jobs on a supervisor’s whim.

Also coming to the fore was the way the farm’s disciplinary measures had made some people choose the harder route of renting a house outside rather than be housed within the estate because, if a person is dismissed, they have to leave the house that same day, regardless of the size of their family.

VICTIMISATION

The Sunday Nation took a look at other big farms across the country and what emerged was a similar, if not more shocking, picture.

In most cases, farms are in an exploitative relationship with staff and are often embroiled in wars with locals over land and other natural resources.

In Naivasha, a grader at a flower farm, who we will not name to protect her against victimisation, said she does strenuous work all day long.

“I report to work at around 7am and leave at around 7pm,” she said.

For all her efforts, and depending on whether she meets the daily targets, she takes home Sh300.

RUDE SUPERVISORS

“When we secured employment, we were quite a big number but a majority of my colleagues failed to cope with the strenuous duties, opting out,” she said.

With a family to feed, she has few options and has to endure long working hours to enable her to put food on the table.

“If I had a choice, I wouldn’t spend a day more,” she said. “The workload is exhausting and, at times, we are left at the mercy of rude supervisors.”

Still in Naivasha, Ms Winnie Wangari recently resigned from her job as a flower packer, citing poor health and meagre wages.

“I had no choice but to resign. I tried my level best but could not cope with the workload. I also had health concerns,” she said.

LONG SHIFTS

During her working days, Ms Wangari would wake up at around 4am to ensure she will be at her work station before 7am, spending the next 12 hours in the busy packing house.

“I’m ready to offer my services elsewhere but not in the flower sector, which I feel is exploitative,” she said.

Mr David Omulama, a former civic leader and a trade unionist, says the problems plaguing flower farm workers arise partly because of the Regulation of Wages (Agricultural Industry) Order that sets the minimum wage for unskilled employees at Sh6,415 a month.

In Kiambu County, the home of fruit juice producer Del Monte, an atmosphere of fear was in the air when the Sunday Nation visited recently.

BITTER-SWEET

A woman who recently retired from the company, having worked as a casual labourer at the factory’s canning section for more than 30 years, said it was always a bitter-sweet experience.

“Back then, we got paid for the hours worked. My shift would begin at 6am and end at 2pm. Much as the pay was small, Sh100 per hour, it played a big role in getting my children through school,” she said.

She also said favouritism was the order of the day, with those who were close to their supervisors getting less strenuous roles.

“That happens even today. When there’s a decline in work to do, there are those who are maintained for longer hours when the rest are sent home. This means much as the pay is standard, some earn more since they are retained longer than the rest by the supervisors,” she said.

LOGGERHEADS

Another former worker at the farm said that when those who are out of favour with supervisors complain to union leaders, the management absolves itself from blame by saying that they signed contracts whose terms state that employees can work at any sections of the farm.

Locals around the farm said that even though nowadays those who trespass into the farm are arrested and taken to court, there was a time when being found in the farm was almost a death sentence.

In Taita-Taveta County, home of the 80,000-acre Teita Sisal Estate owned by Greek investor Philip Kyriazi, locals are up in arms because of land.

More than 3,000 Singila and Majengo squatters in Mwatate sub-county have been at loggerheads with Mr Kyriazi’s farm since 1991.

POOR PAY

The villagers are currently staying at an area where they are not allowed to put up permanent structures.

While the residents say the management has altered the original boundary separating the farm and the villages, the investor maintains that it is the residents who have encroached on his farm.

In 2015, the National Assembly recommended that the land be resurveyed so that the excess parcel goes back to the community. That is yet to happen.

Locals said the investor has closed roads and is even using security officers to harass the residents.

Those employed in the sisal plantation, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the payment is poor but due to lack of an alternative, they have to keep working there.

Our calls and texts to the farm management for a response went unanswered.

WATER FLOW

Taita-Taveta Senator Jones Mwaruma said boundary rows are a never-ending problem. He said the common trend is that once investors have been welcomed, they fight to lock out the community from accessing necessities like water.

“We have had cases where an investor is closing roads leading to water points and sometimes institutions. This is very inhuman,” the senator said.

This mirrors the experience of locals in Solai, who have always been aggrieved by the way the dams in the Patel farm were altering the flow of water in rivers. “Those dams have to empty completely and the rivers restored because all those dams were created on rivers,” area MCA Peter Mbae said three days after the tragedy. Last week, Dr Mbae sued the farm, seeking orders to compel the National Environmental Management Authority (Nema) to assess the dams in the farm in 60 days.

ELECTRIC FENCE

Former Subukia MP Koigi wa Wamwere also alleges that the Patel estate “was denying residents of Marigu, Nyakinyua, Solai and Banita right of way through his farm to Kabazi and Subukia areas”.

In Taita-Taveta there seems to be no end in sight for the friction between locals and former MP Basil Criticos. Mr Criticos is currently erecting an electric fence to stop “invasions” into his 5,000-acre estate which includes the famous Grogan Castle Hotel and an expansive sisal farm.

In early May, Abori Grogan village residents pulled down a fence erected by the former MP, accusing him of encroaching on their farms.

Mr Brown Kazi, a neighbour of Mr Criticos’, accused the investor of blocking some roads that villagers use to access facilities such as hospitals and schools.

Mr Criticos did not respond to our request for a comment, but Mr Barnabas Musyoka, a neighbour, says Mr Criticos has helped the locals.

“He participates in fundraising and helps when calamities strike. Most of the times, he has helped locals tackle problems facing them since he is also a politician and a former area MP,” said Mr Musyoka.

INFRASTRUCTURE

A similar reality exists at the Patel Coffee Estate where the estate management has been engaging in numerous community projects.

Schools, government administrators’ offices, among other infrastructure, have been set up by the Patels in Solai. And according to Subukia MP Kinuthia Gachobe, the projects make the farm have “a very good working relationship and rapport with the locals.”

The Patel Farm management said in a statement days after the tragedy that is has been “an integral part of the Solai community” since 1935 and that it has always supported “projects that uplift the general standard of living of wananchi”.

It is an approach used by many large-scale investments in Kenya, including the now-defunct Kenya Fluorspar Company in Elgeyo -Marakwet and Karuturi Limited in Nakuru.

But perhaps the most strained relations between farms and locals are in tea-growing areas.

UNEVEN TERRAIN

In Nandi County, for example, the local community is laying claim to land being held by estates and other factories occupying in the property formerly held by the East African Tanning and Extract Company.

Those working in tea farms in Kericho are aggrieved by, among other things, the health hazards they are exposed to while at work.

According to Mr Dickson Sang, the Kericho chapter secretary of the Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union, individuals who operate the controversial tea harvesting machines are particularly at risk.

He said the machines expose workers to musculoskeletal  disorders due to carrying the machines under uneven terrain.

COMPETITIVE

But Mr Apollo Kiarii, the chief executive officer of Kenya Tea Growers Association, an umbrella body for tea plantation owners, said mechanisation of tea harvesting is being embraced by Kenya’s main competitors abroad and that efforts to resist the shift will only serve to make Kenya less competitive.

Land is also a big issue in Kericho. After grabbing the land decades ago, the colonialists enacted laws preventing Africans from “trespassing” on their land, which locals say are still strictly observed.

Now, apart from being landless, the evictees complain that they cannot access their forefathers’ graves within the tea estates.

When British lawyer Karim Khan visited victims of colonial injustice a few months ago, he expressed concern about the strict trespass laws.

By Elvis Ondieki, Anita Chepkoech, Mary Wambui, Brian Ocharo, Tom Matoke and Macharia Mwangi