A legislator has called on the management of James Finlay and Ekaterra tea firms in Bomet and Kericho to address unemployment as a solution to the escalating conflicts with the community.
Konoin MP Brighton Yegon warned that the confrontation was likely to persist should the companies continue to hold a hardline stance over the matter by ignoring the local leaders.
“What is happening at the James Finlays tea estate will only end when we sit down and agree on the balancing between mechanisation and employment period,” Yegon said.
He said it was regrettable that the management of the companies has continued to defy pleas from the leadership to have them agree on the best ways to run the farms.
James Finlay recently announced the sale of the tea estates to a Sri Lankan company Browns Investment PLC at an undisclosed fee while reserving only 15 percent of the total shares to the local community.
This rubbed the local leaders the wrong way who have vowed to challenge it in court.
“As a tenant, you cannot sell a business without prior knowledge of the landlord. That is a serious violation of the standard rules of any lease. James Finlay is quite notorious at this,” Kericho senator Aaron Cheruiyot said.
Cases of locals invading the farms heightened following the move by the companies to fire hundreds of workers after acquiring tea-plucking machines.
Several machines have also been destroyed at the farms.
The statement by the legislator comes a day after six police officers were injured following a clash with the locals inside the tea farms.
More security officers have since been deployed to protect tea estates as the cases of renewed attacks targeting the farms continue.
They were attacked by more than 200 youths who were illegally harvesting tea in some sections of James Finlay's farm in Bomet.
Bomet police boss Mathews Mangira said two of the six police officers who sustained injuries are in critical state following the Sunday incident.
“They were rushed to Chebitet Health Centre and Central Hospital owned by Ekattera Tea Company before being transferred to Kericho County Referral Hospital for specialised treatment,” he told the press.
A police vehicle was also torched and reduced to ashes by the youths.
The Toyota Landcruiser attached to Mogogosiek police divisional headquarters in Konoin was towed to Mara Mara police station.
Police are hunting down the group behind the attack.
Police said 14 police officers were on patrol within the estate when they were ambushed by the youths armed who had invaded the plantation to illegally harvest the green leaf.
The youths were armed with crude weapons including stones, slingshots, pangas, catapults, and wooden sticks, a police report said.
The confrontation between the police and farm invaders is the second one in a month.
In the past incident, one cop was left with serious head injuries in April, police said.