The Coalition of Organisations Working on Sexual Violence in Kenya are pushing for action on allegations of sexual exploitation of women in a section of multinational tea plantations in the country .
This follows an expose in the BBC One Panorama investigative report titled Sex for Work: The True Cost of Our Tea that aired on 20th February 2023.
The documentary highlights the horrific working conditions and sexual exploitation faced by women and girls in the tea industry.
It also exposes the dark reality of what women and girls have to endure to get and keep their jobs in tea plantations showing how women are forced to provide sexual favors to their male supervisors and colleagues, to get and retain jobs.
“Unfortunately, despite the tea industry being worth billions of dollars, the women who work in the fields are some of the most exploited, poor and vulnerable in the world” the coalition said in a statement.
“The industry’s hidden cost is the exploitation of vulnerable women workers who are denied basic human rights, such as freedom from sexual abuse, right to health, fair wages and safe working conditions” the stamen reads in part.
Farms Benefiting from Vice
According to the coalition, lack of action by implicated farms points to a culture of looking the other way to benefit from a workforce that is emotionally, mentally and physically broken rendering the women and girl’s incapable of fighting for their rights.
“It must be noted that these allegations are historical and have been documented for decades by civil society organisations including police reports of the sexual abuse of children in the farms that are not acted upon”.
“In spite of the robust legal and policy frameworks in place there remains a huge challenge in implementation of the same which leaves many women in the world of work exposed and at risk of continuous sexual harassment exploitation and abuse,” the coalition said.
Compensation for Affected Women
Consequently, the coalition is demanding that the mentioned farms immediately and at their own cost provide the survivors and those at risk access to immediate independent medical, psychosocial and legal aid services
The organisations also want the institutions implicated to immediately provide compensation for all women and girls who have been violated in the tea plantations.
They are also calling for the possible revocation of licenses given to the implicated farms and their businesses shut down for “lack of compliance with local and international standards for safety and protection especially for women in the workplace”.
“We demand that the institutions implicated immediately put in place internal mechanisms to identify perpetrators and forward all names to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations” the organisations said.
Also Read: National Assembly Calls for Probe into Sexual Abuse Reports on Tea Plantations
Further, the coalition wants the Directorate of Criminal investigations (DCI) to initiate thorough investigations to establish the extent of the sexual harassment in the institutions, businesses and individuals implicated in the BBC documentary and in the tea sector at large.
After the DCI investigations, the coalition wants the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to make public the findings of the DCI and to pursue the cases to the full extent of the law.
At the same time, the coalition is calling on Kenyans and trading partners of the implicated institutions immediately suspend patronage and business with the said institutions until all perpetrators are identified, charged and prosecuted and the said institutions publicly demonstrate real measures put in place to protect women at the workplace.
