Response to Lipton's Response (11th July 2024), July 24 2024

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The Lipton response contains several statements that are inaccurate and potentially misleading. The sale of the Lipton Kericho tea estate is a very significant historical event for our community. We are therefore writing to set the public record straight.

.... Lipton did not respond until after the publication of an article on Sinendet's letter in the Financial Times on 3 April. Lipton did not invite Sinendet to join any sale process, did not share any company information to allow Sinendet to prepare an offer for the business and did not pursue any meaningful engagement, either with our local consortium or with the Kipsigis Community Clans Organization...

....Failure to adhere to FPIC in this transaction is not only a breach of Lipton's own policy commitment but also a breach of Principle 13 of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

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To avoid perpetuating injustice to the local Kericho community and creating irreversible damage to the Lipton brand, we strongly urge Lipton / CVC to reconsider its current position, to suspend the current sale process immediately and to re-start the process with meaningful local engagement with relevant rightsholders and to follow the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

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For the record: we are aware that our international partner (101 Partners) participated in the sale process of Lipton's total tea estate business (including Tanzania and Rwanda). However, 101 was subject to an NDA and no company information was shared with the Sinendet Consortium at any stage. On 14 February, 101 suggested to Sinendet to write directly to Lipton with an Expression of Interest for the Kenyan tea estates. We then pursued direct engagement with Lipton as outlined above.

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Full response can be seen below.