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Protesters Storm Tea Firm
Demanding Jobs
Business Daily (Nairobi)
21 January 2008
Zeddy Sambu
James Finlay, Kenya's second largest tea investor, was yesterday
grappling with renewed post-election disruptions as mobs stormed
some of its factories in Kericho to protest the outcome of the
December 27 presidential poll.
The attacks came only a few days after Unilever, a top tea
producer, said it had incurred up to Sh30 million in damages to
property and equipment since the skirmishes began.
Yesterday, hundreds of residents invaded James Finlay's Getumbe
factory demanding that they be hired for manual tasks such as tea
picking.
The management, however, maintained that there were no vacancies
since the company had replaced the workers who had fled following
the political unrest two weeks ago.
Finlays had thus far maintained that its operations were not
affected by the skirmishes even as its competitors reported huge
losses. "There have been no disruptions to our tea plucking, tea
extraction or flower and vegetable production activities so far,"
the company said on its web site last Friday.
Yesterday, sources at the company's Kericho head offices confirmed
that some of its workers had left for fear of being attacked.
"The company's policy has been that 75 per cent of the workforce
must come from the locality," an official told Business Daily.
Mr Francis Kaptich, the corporate Affairs director for Unilever
Tea Kenya, denied reports that the company which runs Kenya's
largest tea estate had stopped its operations following the unrest.
"We resumed operations on January 7 and have been operating
regularly since then," he said. "All our tea factories and estates
have been fully operational, processing close to 500,000 kgs of
green tea leaves per day."
Unilever has been counting losses since its houses were destroyed
and trucks burnt by protesters at the peak of the riots in the
first week of January.
"Nearly 20 per cent of our workers were affected and are currently
not working. We have encountered upto Sh30 million in losses,"
said Mr Kaptich.
For small scale farmers, however, several weeks of skirmishes
paralysed tea picking activities as well as processing in the
factories.
Kenya Tea Development Authority (KTDA) factories located in
Kericho, Bureti, Kisii and Nandi districts, were closed after
workers failed to report to work and oil deliveries did not reach
the factories.
Mr Arthur Rimberia, the KTDA's director for operations, said
farmers suffered a one week loss of earning in the ensuing
skirmishes.
"We have few stocks of fuel left and no new deliveries have been
coming. These quantities are far below our consumption levels," he
said.
Industry insiders said tea sales at the weekly Mombasa auction
needed to resume immediately if the sector is to cover lost ground.
One month ago, most agricultural-based listed companies reported
increased annual earnings but the post-election violence has taken
a toll on this performance.
In mid-December, Unilever, for instance, was trading at Sh67, but
by the close of Friday's trading, the share price had tumbled to
Sh62.
Sasini Ltd, which operates four tea factories at Kipkebe and
Keritor, lost Sh2 to settle at Sh14.75.
Forecasts by analysts show that the two stocks should not dip
below Sh65.36 and sh19.05. The onset of the dry season has also
compounded the situation and production has remained at its ebb.
James Finlay's annual earnings have increased impressively over
the last four years with production now peaked at 26 million
kilogrammes of fresh tea each year with ambitious modernisation
programmes just rolled out.
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