" Camellia Plc faces legal claim in London for alleged systemic human rights abuses by its Kenyan subsidiary"

Seventy-nine Kenyans have launched a legal claim in the High Court in London against Camellia Plc (and other UK companies in the Camellia Group) for alleged human rights abuses by its Kenyan subsidiary, Kakuzi Plc. The case is being brought with the support of the Kenyan Human Rights Commission and the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO). Camellia Plc is listed on the London stock exchange and is a large agricultural business which owns plantations around the world, employs over 78,000 people and in 2019 generated revenues in excess of £290 million. Its Kenyan subsidiary, Kakuzi Plc, operates a vast (54-square mile) plantation in central Kenya....

The 79 Kenyans, who are represented by Leigh Day, include former employees of Kakuzi Plc, claim serious abuse by security guards employed by Kakuzi, including killings, rape, attacks, false imprisonment and other forms of serious mistreatment, between 2009 and 2020. The Kakuzi farm occupies land acquired during the colonisation of Kenya by Britain in the early 20th century.  It also includes land seized from local communities during the Kenya Emergency (1952-1960) and land sold by European farmers who left Kenya after independence in 1963.

Many local communities live on or next to land registered to Kakuzi. Their water sources, paths, roads, and schools are on land registered to Kakuzi.