"Governor pushes for ownership of tea estates by residents"

Kericho Governor Paul Chepkwony has called on multinational tea firms operating in the county to sell shares to locals living around the estates to improve their lives...He said the step would go a long way in ameliorating their economic status. “In India, shares of huge tea firms were sold to the local Indian population and it is because of that programme that many poor native Indians, who did not have any land during the colonial era under Britain, came to own land previously owned by the colonial masters,” he said. He added that he would strive to ensure communities own a stake in the export industry by pushing for them to take over control of the firms when the leases of the multinational companies expire...

The county chief's move comes at a time when the tea firms have been troubled following court orders to increase salaries for their tea pickers by 30 per cent, which have led to the workers going on strike after the companies said they were unable to do so. Unilever Tea Kenya Ltd is staring at numerous losses after more than 20,000 workers downed tools to demand pay rise awarded to them...The strike has been going on for two weeks and the county government has called on the company to hold talks with the workers' union, Kenya Plantations and Agricultural Workers Union (KPAWU). Meanwhile, operations at James Finlay Tea (Kenya) Ltd and James Finlay Flowers Ltd have been restored to normalcy after a nearly 10-day strike.

Governor Chepkwony has also said the county administration has finalised plans to file a landmark case against the British Government for crimes committed against the Talai and Kipsigis communities during the colonial era...In an interview in the county earlier, Mr Bosek said he and his team of lawyers have registered more than 116,000 victims who experienced the alleged brutality, which saw masses kicked out of their ancestral land to pave way for tea farming in large scale.