Kenya crisis hits hard on tea
2008-01-17 15:27
Nairobi - Tea is a casualty of the turmoil sparked by disputed presidential elections in Kenya, with thousands of workers forced to flee plantations in one of the world's top exporters, industry sources say.
Between 26 000 and 70 000 tea sector workers from the western region of Kericho, where Kenya's main plantations lie, fled in fear of their lives after the disputed December 27 presidential poll, says Joshua Okelo, national treasurer of the Kenya Plantation Agricultural Workers Union.
"Tension is very high," he said, three weeks later.
After Mwai Kibaki was declared re-elected on December 30, the east African country sunk into a week of riots and tribal clashes, which killed more than 700, according to police, and forced a quarter of a million to flee their homes.
Dozens of houses burnt down
Strongholds of opposition leader Raila Odinga in the west of the country were badly hit and the tea plantations witnessed score-settling between Odinga supporters and suspected Kibaki sympathisers.
"The Kalenjin said they don't want Kisiis in the tea industry," Okelo said, referring to two of Kenya's 42 tribal groups.
Dozens of employees' houses, which sit among the tea fields, were burned down. Their inhabitants fled through the fields, a local nun said, requesting anonymity.
"They were hiding in the tea plantation. Some spent four days there. They had no food," she added.
Eight people were killed at Unilever, Kenya's largest tea company, said national managing director Richard Fairburn. Many others returned to their home districts for their own safety, he added.
Those targeted were mainly from the Kisii tribe, who partially supported Kibaki, and the president's own Kikuyu tribe, according to witnesses.
Tea plantations 'suffer serious damages'
Since the clashes, "all the Kisiis have left" the tea plantations around Kericho, Okelo said.
"Those who remain here belong to Raila Odinga (a Luo)," said a member of the Kalenjin tribe, a stallholder on Unilever's immense property lined with tea fields and rows of semi-detached houses.
The tea plantations suffered serious damage to houses, vehicles and warehouses.
Unilever estimated that repairs would cost between 30 and 40 million Kenyan shillings ($450 000 and $600 000) and said it had significantly slowed down operations.
The Kenya Tea Growers Association, comprising four companies, said business had dropped by more than half. "They are operational at 40%," said Tideon Too, the association's executive officer.
The main work in this season was pruning plants, which was key for the first harvest of the year, in May. Plantations had hired seasonal workers to make up the shortfall, but also needed seasonal workers, Too said.
The recent unrest as well as drought had increased the price of tea by about 0.5 dollars per kilo in recent days at the Kenyan port of Mombasa, from where it was exported.