ETI joins calls for the removal of John Chebochok as KTDA election candidate

  • ETI
People harvesting tea on a tea plantation. Photo credit: Shutterstock.

This week, ETI learned that John Chebochok, is standing for election as Director of Toror Tea Factory. We join others in calling for his immediate removal from the election process.

In February 2023, John Chebochok was featured in BBC’s Africa Eye and Panorama programmes documenting the sexual exploitation of women working in Kenya’s tea industry. The broadcast included detailed testimony of sexual exploitation from women workers, as well as undercover footage implicating Chebochok as a key perpetrator. 

ETI are deeply concerned to learn Chebochok now stands to be elected as a Director of Toror Tea Factory, a Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) factory; KTDA holds smallholder farms across 16 tea growing countries in Kenya, its factories are run by boards elected by the farmers that co-own them. His candidacy risks tarnishing the reputation of the KTDA and undermines the work concerned stakeholders across Kenya’s tea industry have been undertaking to combat the endemic sexual exploitation and gender-based violence faced by too many workers. 

ETI has alerted our members to this development and supports efforts by key civil society and industry stakeholders condemning his candidacy and calling for his removal. 

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