A UK-based food supplier has settled two legal cases alleging rights abuses and rape at farms in Kenya and Malawi, the claimants’ lawyers have said.
In Malawi, 36 women workers at a tea plantation alleged abuses including rape and sexual harassment while they worked for Eastern Produce Malawi (EPM), an indirect Camellia subsidiary.
“The settlement the parties have reached provides individual compensation for the claimants, who have claimed damages as victims of human rights abuses,” Daniel Leader, a lawyer from the Leigh Day firm representing the Kenyan claimants, said in a statement on Sunday as quoted by AFP.
In a filing at London’s High Court in October 2019, the Malawian women alleged they had experienced gender-based violence including rape and sexual harassment.
Sapna Malik of Leigh Day, representing the claimants in Malawi, called the settlement “ground-breaking”.
He said it not only provided compensation but included “significant changes to the working practices at EPM to improve the safety and prospects of its women employees”.
The projects include scholarships for 10 women and other improvements that “should also bring meaningful improvements and opportunities to women and children in the communities”, Malik added.
The government of Malawi has welcomed the decision by a UK firm.
Malawi’s Gender Minister Patricia Kaliati told local media that the government had been concerned to hear about the cases of abuse.
