Sex predators prowl Kenyan tea plantations of beloved British brands

This is the horrifying moment a Kenyan boss tried to force a woman to have sex in return for work as widespread sexual abuse on tea farms serving PG Tips, Lipton, Tesco and Sainsbury’s emerged and one victim became infected with HIV.

An undercover BBC reporter was invited to an interview in a hotel room where she was quickly asked to start touching James Finlay & Company recruiter John Chebochok who instructed her to take her clothes off and ‘lie down’.

The victim, called Katy, was wearing a secret camera and was pinned against a window by Mr Chebochok as she kept saying: ‘I haven’t consented’.

He said: ‘Touch me. Just touch me a bit. Just consent. I’ll give you some money, then I’ll give you a job. I have helped you, help me. We’ll lie down, finish and go. Then you come and work.’

Tea plantation recruiter John Chebochok was filmed telling a prospective employee she should take her clothes off and ‘lie down’ if she wanted work, telling her: ‘I have helped you’

The victim, Katy, repeatedly said she was not consenting. Chebochok, who worked for James Finlay & Company

A BBC team in the hotel then called her on her mobile so she could escape. 

The joint investigation by BBC Panorama and BBC Africa Eye found that more than 70 women who work on the plantations had suffered some form of sexual harassment at work. 

The victims worked on plantations owned by consumer giant Unilever and James Finlay.

One woman claimed she had been infected with HIV by her boss, who demanded sex. Another victim said a manager cancelled her work until she agreed to have sex with him.

She said: ‘It is just torture; he wants to sleep with you, then you get a job’. Another woman was forced to comply and said afterwards: ‘I can’t lose my job because I have kids’.

Secret footage captured as part of the investigation shows the moment a recruitment manager for Scottish firm James Finlay & Company corners an undercover investigator and demands sex, during what was supposed to be a job interview for work on a tea farm.

Undercover reporter Katy repeatedly said she didn’t consent to sex, but James Finlay John Chebochok told her she should and began taking his clothes off.

Chebochok was chillingly calm where he made it clear that sex with him was part of getting work

Katy was pinned against a window and looked terrified as she was asked to start touching the abuser

Katy was also harrassed at a tea farm which was, at the time of filming, owned by British Dutch company Unilever.

She said afterwards: ‘I was so scared, and so shocked. It must be really difficult for the women who work under Chebochok’. 

Following the investigation, James Finlay and Co told the BBC it has suspended and barred the employee from its tea farms and reported him to the police.

The company also told the broadcaster that it is investigating whether its Kenyan operation has ‘an endemic issue with sexual violence’.

James Finlay and Co is the second largest tea company operating in Kenya’s Rift Valley, and supplies tea to Sainsbury’s and Tesco supermarkets.

Responding to the findings, Sainsbury’s told the BBC the ‘horrific allegations have no place in our supply chain’, while Tesco said that it is in ‘constant dialogue’ with the company to ensure ‘robust measures’ are taken.

Separate video reveals two managers sexually harassing an undercover investigator at a tea farm which was, at the time of filming, owned by British Dutch company Unilever.

Unilever told the BBC it is ‘deeply shocked and saddened’ by the allegations, and employees who breached its Code of Conduct have been dismissed, and any criminality reported to the police.

• The investigation for BBC Panorama, Sex for Work: The True Cost of Our Tea, airs on Monday on BBC One at 8pm and on BBC iPlayer.