For several months leading up to September, Sarah had noticed a disturbing pattern with her 14-year-old daughter’s visits to a section of the Kakuzi plantation in Gateya, Murang’a County.
Whenever the girl returned from the forested area locals have nicknamed Gachangi, she would have leaves and twigs all over her clothes and hair.
The teenager was epileptic and the mother of two, concerned about her safety, persuaded her to avoid the risky place. Gachangi is part of the 42,000-acre Kakuzi plantation patrolled by ruthless guards.
Residents caught trespassing in the vast plantation of avocadoes have horrific tales. Two age-sets usually stroll into the plantations to collect firewood, mostly girls aged 13-20 years and older women.
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A boy walking on along a railway line next to Kakuzi’s tree plantation.
Sarah had heard vile stories of sexual assault by the guards, which explained her apprehension whenever she saw her daughter disheveled.
“Whenever I would ask, she would say she had to run from guards while collecting firewood in Gachangi,” Sarah told the Nation in an interview.
It wouldn’t be long before the dark secret was out. On September 21, Fredrick Omondi Otieno, a guard, was arrested following a complaint against him over an illicit relationship with the teenager.
The girl identified him as the one who had been defiling her for months. She was pregnant. Two weeks earlier, the girl’s step-father had also been arrested.
The two denied charges of defilement and their trial is scheduled at Kigumo Law Courts.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed company is facing grave allegations of human rights abuses after a group of 79 Kenyans sued the majority shareholder, Camellia PLC, in the UK for failing to stop the alleged violations on Kakuzi’s plantation in Murang’a.
UK supermarket chain, Tesco, has suspended orders for avocadoes from Kakuzi over human rights concerns. Two years ago, a man died under controversial circumstances at the Rwanda section of the plantation amid claims he had been assaulted by the guards.
The firm has since erected an electric fence to close off the area where Joseph Maina Ndung’u, 28, was assaulted and later died of his injuries. Residents of Gateya allege other bodies have been retrieved from the forest before.
“Gateya is generally a safe place. We have never heard of people being killed elsewhere and their bodies being dumped in the forest. In any event, those recovered from Kakuzi forests have often turned out to be Makuyu residents,” a Gateya resident told the Nation.
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[SIZE=6]Risky trips[/SIZE]
Of the three dreaded sections of the plantation, Don Bosco is less dangerous, where girls and young women from neighbouring communities make the risky trips in search of firewood.
For a long time, women and girls from Gateya have become accustomed to this routine, but it’s one they would rather avoid if they had a choice. Behind Kakuzi’s kei apple fence, inside the blue gum trees and avocado farms, is a thriving sex-for-firewood trade that exploits teenage girls.
When a group of girls bump into the guards, those familiar with them will — as if on cue — walk to a bushy area. There, the guards will do their thing and the group will be allowed to collect firewood.
“Some of them will ask for a bribe, between Sh1,500 and Sh2,000, especially from the older women. But it has become common for some girls to trade sex for firewood. They do it because it allows them to come back any other day to collect more,” one of the residents said.
[SIZE=6]Internal investigation[/SIZE]
Following Omondi’s arrest, Kakuzi suspended him on September 21 and opened an internal investigation.
“You must supply the company with a contact telephone number where you can be contacted during working hours whilst you are on suspension. For this reason, you should be available during working hours to be contacted, as your suspension is with pay,” reads his suspension letter.
“You are to report to Forestry West Athara office at 0800hrs to the last day of your suspension when a formal disciplinary enquiry will be conducted.”
The teenager was taken to a children’s home and Sarah, who’s battling hypertension, is now trying to track down her daughter. She is bitter with some neighbours who knew about her daughter’s affair with Omondi but kept silent.
Interetingly, Omondi was also Sarah’s friend, whom she calls Freddy.
“Freddy would come to my house when off duty or on leave and check on me. If I was not, he would walk towards Gachangi and my daughter would soon leave in the same direction. I asked the neighbours why they did not inform me about this earlier. Now, when my daughter is pregnant is when they tell me. How does it help?” posed Sarah.
[SIZE=6]No justice[/SIZE]
On the day we visited the plantation, on a narrow murram road that leads to Rwanda Forest, there were several patches along the kei apple fence that residents use to access Kakuzi land.
Two boys appeared on a route cutting through a blue gum forest on the left near Thangira village. They both carried folded sacks, probably stuffed with maize.
On the opposite side, two women carried harvested grass and a girl lugged firewood (dried blue gum tree branches). On spotting us, they dropped their luggage and were about to take off when they identified our guide.
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yet they are on the frontline yapping about how Luo women are useless exchanging sex for fish…if you ask me…i prefer sex for fish…than firewood.