On March 4, the company abruptly fired 214 of its guards, who now complain that the checks were slow in coming and smaller than they had been promised.
That same day, Del Monte announced a “strategic partnership” with global security company G4S in response to recommendations from a recent Human Rights Impact Assessment by Partner Africa, an organization that audits businesses’ social impact.
The company says it plans to deploy approximately 270 “security professionals” to the pineapple farm.
Del Monte, Kenya’s largest produce exporter, has recently undergone global scrutiny due to escalating violence on its plantation. Four men were allegedly killed on the Del Monte pineapple plantation over Christmas, and a civil claim was filed at the end of December against the company accusing the company’s guards of stabbing, stoning, torturing and rape.
The firing decision had been made on Feb. 28, according to internal Del Monte documents obtained by OCCRP. But former guards, many who have worked for the company for decades, claim they had no idea until they received redundancy letters on March 4.
“There was no warning, they gave us no reason,” Kelvin Kipleting, who had been with the company for 15 years, told OCCRP. “We know nothing.”
Del Monte did not respond to multiple email requests for comment.
On March 6, Del Monte sent out an internal company-wide announcement about the reorganization of security services. According to a job advertisement obtained by OCCRP for “Security officers-Riders,” G4S recruitment is taking place in Thika on Friday, March 8. They are seeking employees “of high integrity and physically fit” with motorcycle technical skills and computer literacy.
According to the firing letters signed by Del Monte’s human resources manager, the firings were “due to the reorganization of Security Services.” Included in the severance package were 27 to 31 days pay — depending on how many years worked — and a transport fee of 15,000 Kenyan shillings (the equivalent of USD $105).
Dozens of guards claim this is not enough to return home to other parts of Kenya, and say they have been given no timeline on when they will be kicked out of Del Monte housing.
“We are stranded,” said Kipleting. ”How will we get back to our families?”
Four other former employees told OCCRP they had received no severance packages at all, having been forced to remain as contractors for years. Former guards claim the hiring of G4S is in line with the company’s pattern of underpaying employees.
“They are just after cheap labor,” said Josphat Nukua who worked for Del Monte for 20 years. ‘Now we are all jobless people.”
