Members of the National Assembly will investigate the alleged harassment of workers in tea estates as exposed by BBC on Monday, February 20.
National Assembly Deputy Speaker, Gladys Boss Shollei, on Tuesday, February 21, directed the House Committee on Labour to finalise investigations within two weeks.
Kericho Women representative Beatrice Kemei had sought a statement from the Departmental Committee on Labour regarding the harassment claims made in the exposé.
Speaking during a sitting on Tuesday, February 21, Kemei denounced the deplorable state and conditions workers were subjected to in the tea sector, basing her argument on the testimonies aired in the investigative piece.
She decried that desperate workers were subjected to heinous acts by managers with less or no action from the government and the administrations of the companies in question.
"Today, I have been reminded that slavery still exists in this nation. I cannot explain how a man has violated women in tea plantations for 30 years, and nothing has been done," she stated in her petition.
Her statement came a day after the expose by the British broadcaster lifted the lid on what could have been years of misery for dozens of women working in tea estates in the Rift Valley.
In the exposé, female workers in some of the country's notable tea-producing companies gave testimonies of their experiences in the hands of their managers in what they described as a condition for securing a job in the estate.
A journalist went undercover and posed as a job seeker in one of the tea firms, only to be subjected to the same demands by the recruiting authority.
Subsequently, the expose sparked an online outrage as Kenyans from various quarters denounced the level of impunity projected in the investigative piece.
Two of the tea firms mentioned in the expose announced the dismissal of their managers and commenced investigations as a reaction to the predicaments aired by some of its workers.
International retail chains threatened to boycott tea products from the implicated companies unless firm measures were taken. The Ministry of Labour had yet to issue a statement on the matter by the time of this publication.
