According to the BBC, more than 70 women out of 100 spoken to who work on the plantations reported experiencing sexual harassment at work.
An undercover investigation by the BBC Panorama and BBC Africa Eye has uncovered sexual abuse on workers of British-owned tea farms in Kenya.
Kenya is one of the centres of global tea production – an industry worth more than $20bn dollars a year which employs one in ten Kenyans.
The investigation BBC Africa Eye, Sex for Work: The True Cost of Our Tea uncovers the extent of sexual abuse on tea farms.
It was gathered that women who produce tea for major brands have been pressured to have sex with their bosses in exchange for work.
According to the BBC, more than 70 women out of 100 spoken to who work on the plantations reported experiencing sexual harassment at work.
They allege managers demand sex in return for jobs, lighter work duties or the renewal of casual employment contracts. There are allegations that some fell pregnant, while others were infected with HIV. One supervisor is even accused of raping a 14-year-old girl who was living on site at one of the plantations.
During what was supposed to be a job interview for work on a tea farm, a recruitment manager for Scottish firm James Finlay & Company cornered an undercover investigator and demanded sex, according to secret footage obtained as part of the investigation.
John Chebochok, the recruitment manager for Scottish firm James Finlay and Company, invited the BBC’s undercover investigator “Katy” (not her real name) to a job interview, not on company premises but in a hotel room.
He then cornered “Katy,” pinning her against a window as he tried to coerce her into having sex with him.
One of the women who works for Chebochok describes him as a ‘predator’, the report said.
The footage shows Katy saying she does not consent, but Chebochok persists, asking her to touch him, and telling her: “Consent, just consent. I have helped you, help me. We’ll lie down, finish and go. Then you come and work.”
Katy continues to refuse his advances, and he eventually accepts that she will not sleep with him for work. When she follows up with Chebochok a week later, he ignores her messages before blocking her.
Chebochok did not respond to the allegations.
Another man alleged to be a serial sex abuser is John Asava who, as a supervisor working on plantations owned by James Finlay & Co, oversees more than 100 employees. Candid video footage shows him talking about sexual violence taking place on his plantation, including a case of a woman being gang-raped for hours. He says no one was prosecuted, the company “had to clear its name.”
One woman tells the BBC John Asava impregnated her and infected her with HIV. She says he has made seven other women sick with the disease, and she has been left so traumatised by her ordeal that she has contemplated taking her own life.
But John Asava denied the allegations, saying, “I have never sexually harassed anyone in my life. God is my witness.”
Following the BBC’s investigation, James Finlay and Co says it has suspended and barred Chebochok and Asava from its tea farms and reported them to the police.
The company also told the BBC that it is investigating whether its Kenyan operation has “an endemic issue with sexual violence.”
James Finlay and Co is the second largest tea company operating in Kenya’s Rift Valley, and supplies tea to Sainsbury’s and Tesco supermarkets.
Responding to the findings, Sainsbury’s told the BBC the “horrific allegations have no place in our supply chain”, while Tesco said that it is in “constant dialogue” with the company to ensure “robust measures” are taken.
A separate video shows two managers sexually harassing an undercover investigator at a tea farm owned by the British Dutch company Unilever at the time of filming.
Some of the women spoken to by the BBC, name two Unilever bosses in particular, Jeremiah Koskei, a manager and Samuel Yebei, a supervisor, alleging they demanded sex for work.
According to the BBC, Unilever said it was "deeply shocked and saddened" by the allegations, and employees who breached its Code of Conduct were dismissed, and any criminality reported to the police.