Agricultural firm, Kakuzi PLC recorded a total of 253 grievances from local communities last year, grievances on human rights constituted more than two-thirds of the complaints.
According to the company’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) 2021 report, out of the 253 grievances, the company handled last year, 169 were related to human rights, 38 to work related injuries and 15 to safety and health.
The continued high levels of human rights concerns highlight the existing threat for the company which is recovering from dire reputational damage since 2020 when revelations of serious cases of human rights abuses by some of its guards at the Murang’a based farms against neighbouring communities were made.
In the ESG report released yesterday, Kakuzi stated that under its operational and grievance mechanism (OGM) established last year to facilitate engagements between the firm and local communities following the 2020 accusations.
“OGM is a systematic, transparent, non-judicial process for receiving, investigating and addressing company related grievances from affected communities, workers, farmers who supply avocados through Kakuzi’s economic empowerment programme and other relevant stakeholders,” the report states.
“During the reporting period, Tier 1 received over 400 complaints related to labour, safety and health, work related injuries, sexual harassment, pollution and living and working conditions,” the report read.
