Pineapples are sold on the side of the road in front of a plantation of the American giant Del Monte in Kabati (Kenya) on January 18, 2024 (AFP/SIMON MAINA)
“The instructions were very clear: when you see a thief, you chase him until you stop him and you beat him brutally,” says Daniel Kamau Wainaina, former guard on a pineapple plantation in Kenya for the food giant Del Monte.
Del Monte guards are accused of numerous assaults, rapes and murders, according to testimonies collected by AFP.
Del Monte defends itself by calling these accusations “allegations” and that they are “nothing more than disinformation campaigns by the plaintiffs and the media.”
A complaint was filed in the High Court of Kenya in December against Del Monte, representing 10 plaintiffs who claim that they or their relatives were assaulted by guards, employed by the American giant. Two NGOs also joined the complaint.
– Daily flights –
The latest accusations date back to December after four bodies were found in a river near a 40 km2 plantation located in Thika, about 40 kilometers north of the capital Nairobi. Kenyan police have announced the opening of an investigation.
The American company, which employs some 6,000 people in Kenya and whose global sales amount to more than 4 billion dollars (3.6 billion euros), has been accused for years by NGOs of abusing rights humans in this East African country.
In a press release, assuring “cooperation with the Kenyan authorities”, she said that on video surveillance images, the four men were “stealing pineapples” from the plantation.
These images “do not show any wrongdoing on the part of Del Monte, but rather show the thieves fleeing towards the river, after dropping the bags of stolen pineapples, trying to escape the security guards”, explains -she, denouncing “organized crime, mainly around pineapple thefts, (which) is becoming endemic in the region”.
Pineapples are sold on the side of the road in front of a plantation of the American giant Del Monte in Kabati (Kenya) on January 18, 2024 (AFP/SIMON MAINA)
Thefts are daily on the plantation: at the time of guard rotation, around 1:00 p.m., many young people go on foot or on motorbikes to the plantation and come out with bags filled with pineapples, noted the AFP twice.
On Thursday, December 21, this routine turned into drama.
Present on the plantation to steal pineapples with other people, Buddy (the first name has been changed at the request of the person concerned for security reasons) claims to have witnessed the beating of the four men whose bodies were found a few days later. late in the river.
“The guards ambushed us and started shouting at us. When they caught up with us, they started hitting us with metal bars and sticks while heading towards the river,” says the young man about twenty years old.
Buddy continues that he managed to hide in “a bush” and says that the four men “were beaten very badly”: “Afterwards, it seems that the guards thought they were dead. To hide the evidence, they threw their bodies in the river.
A second person, Ras, who also requested anonymity, also claims to have witnessed the scene while he participated in the thefts. He gives a similar unfolding of events.
Two bodies were found near the plantation on December 24, the other two the next day. On videos consulted by AFP, transmitted by a member of the NGO Kagama present on the scene at the time of the discovery on December 24, the face of one of the four victims appears swollen, blood coming out of the nose and the mouth.
– “Allegations” –
Contacted several times, Del Monte did not wish to grant an interview to AFP, preferring to react with a press release in which the company mentions “allegations”.
“According to autopsy reports, the individuals died by drowning and there was no indication of foul play,” maintains the agri-food giant.
AFP had access to one of the autopsies, which, although it concluded that it was “drowning”, also mentioned “several bruises extending to the face”.
According to an investigator, who requested anonymity, from the Kenya National Commission for Human Rights (KNCHR), an official but independent body, the guards have “improved their techniques”: “Before, they beat to death, before to throw the bodies in the river. Now they beat them and throw the people into the water who are still alive, but too weak to swim, so that the autopsies can conclude that they were drownings.”
“Our preliminary investigations reveal, beyond all reasonable doubt, that the four men were attacked before being forcibly drowned,” Kamanda Mucheke, a senior KNHCR official, was quoted as saying in late December by the Daily Nation newspaper.
Pineapples are sold on the side of the road in front of a plantation of the American giant Del Monte in Kabati (Kenya) on January 18, 2024 (AFP/SIMON MAINA)
In a joint investigation, The Guardian newspaper and the British NGO Bureau of Investigative Journalism raised in June “allegations of six murders over the last decade by guards on the vast Del Monte pineapple plantation”. Figures which do not take into account the four cases in December.
Daniel Kamau Wainaina worked for Del Monte for 25 years, largely as a guard. The 58-year-old man, who told AFP that he had beaten up pineapple thieves, was fired in 2016, accused of theft, which he denies.
“We received orders from above to beat up (…) Otherwise we were threatened with being fired,” he maintains.
Gerald Njoroge Mwangi, for his part, worked as a guard on the plantation between 2010 and 2019. Although he maintains that he never hit him, he says he “witnessed numerous beatings”. “We are not trained to deal with thieves,” he says.
In 2019, five Del Monte guards were prosecuted for the death of Bernard Murigi Wanginye, a 26-year-old worker, who had gone to the plantation to steal pineapples. The five defendants, who pleaded not guilty and were fired by Del Monte, have yet to stand trial.
– “Impunity” –
After the publication of the investigation by the Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the British supermarket giant Tesco announced in June the suspension of its supply of pineapples produced by Del Monte in Kenya, a decision still in progress, the company specifies in the AFP.
The British supermarket chain Waitrose has made the decision “to no longer sell pineapples from the Del Monte plantation in Kenya” since last September following accusations of human rights abuses.
Kenyan lawyer Mbiyu Kamau, who represents victims of alleged violence suspected of having been committed by guards of the American giant Del Monte in Kenya, in his office in Thika on January 10, 2024 (AFP/SIMON MAINA)
In the complaint filed in December, plaintiffs accuse the guards of beating to death people accused of theft, drowning them in reservoirs or throwing them into the nearby river.
“The problem is that very few measures have been taken against Del Monte security personnel,” lawyer Mbiyu Kamau, at the origin of the complaint, assures AFP, while denouncing the “impunity” of which would benefit the business.
In its response sent to AFP, Del Monte claims to be “constantly looking for areas in which we can improve”, assures the agri-food giant, claiming to be committed “to human rights”.
“We look forward to responding to the allegations that have been made against us and others, including the Kenyan government, in the Kenyan courts, and we look forward to the opportunity for all parties to publicly present evidence and are convinced that these procedures will reveal that the allegations are nothing more than disinformation campaigns carried out by the plaintiffs and the media”, defends the company.
Neither the local governor, nor the county police or the Ministry of Justice responded to AFP’s requests.
– “Brutal and systemic” –
In the villages around the plantation, several people met by AFP claim to have been victims of violence at the hands of Del Monte guards.
Among them, Simon Kamau Waitha. In October 2020, this boda-boda (motorcycle taxi) driver was, according to him, arrested by Del Monte guards while he was crossing the plantation on a public road with a bag filled with coal.
The guards think he just stole some pineapples. “Seven guards threw themselves at me, hit me and released the dogs on me, before leaving me for dead,” testifies the 33-year-old man, who had the tip of his nose torn off in this incident. He says he intends to join the suit filed against Del Monte.
Brigitte (the first name has been changed at the request of the person concerned) claims to have been raped by three guards on the plantation in 2002, when she was only 12 years old.
She had gone to the plantation with her mother to collect wood. “They asked me to undress, I refused. They undressed me by force, laid me on the ground and took turns raping me,” she says.
She claims that she never spoke to her husband about the rape she testified about, because of the shame she feels, but that she sought reparations from Del Monte, without filing a complaint.
British law firm Leigh Day represents 134 people who say they were victims of abuse, including five rapes, at the hands of Del Monte guards, some dating back to 2013.
Pineapples are sold on the side of the road in front of a plantation of the American giant Del Monte in Kabati (Kenya) on January 18, 2024 (AFP/SIMON MAINA)
“Allegations of human rights violations by Del Monte security guards in Kenya indicate a modus operandi designed to deter pineapple theft that is brutal and systemic and completely at odds with that of a company that respects human rights “, assures Richard Meeran, who represents the 134 clients.
But the accusations against the guards do not seem to deter the dozens of young men who go to the plantation daily to steal pineapples, before reselling them on the markets, for a few hundred shillings, barely a few euros.
“I’m looking for pineapples so I can sell them and have food. There’s a lack of work,” explains Jackson, 25, who says he has been flying from the plantation for around fifteen years. nairobi
Does he fear them? “Of course I’m scared,” he said, pointing to a gash on his neck, which he said was caused during a beating by guards.
Theft, combined with trespassing on private property, is punishable by up to four years in prison. But for lawyer Mbiyu Kamau, they cannot in any way justify the beatings. “The judgment must be left to the court. Whether this person is a thief or not is up to a judge to determine.”
© 2024 AFP
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