Following the 2007 post-election violence in Kenya, 200 victims brought a lawsuit in the United Kingdom against Unilever. The complaint argues that the company was allegedly responsible for its subsidiary's failure to protect its employees living and working on Unilever Tea Kenya's tea plantation. Victims, targeted because they were from a different tribe, are seeking compensation for injuries and losses they suffered including violent attacks and rape. Unilever has argued that the claims should be heard in Kenya, not in England and that the High Court should decline jurisdiction.

On 18 January 2019, four organizations (Redress, Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations, Independent Medico-Legal Unit-Kenya, and International Commission of Jurists-Kenya) submitted a letter to the Supreme Court in support of the plaintiffs' application for permission to appeal to the UK Supreme Court.