This archive report was first published on 21 October 2019.
On October 19, 2019, Finlays Flowers General Manager Stephen Scott announced that the company's directors had decided to shut down flower farming operations on Chemirei and Tarakwet flower farms a year earlier than communicated to the workers.
As a result, approximately 1,100 workers would lose their jobs by December 25, 2019. Nikko Tanui, a Standard Group journalist, was investigating the story when he was detained by security guards at a Finlays Kenya Limited property in Kericho.
According to Tanui, he was taking notes and speaking with Dickson Sang, an official of the Kenya Agricultural Plantation and Workers Union (KPAWU), when they were stopped and detained at the security desk.
‘I was taking to Dickson, who is an official of the workers’ union about the impending closure of the flower farms. On reaching the barrier to the company, we were stopped and detained at the security desk,’ Tanui said.
A video taken by Tanui shows the security guards making frantic calls to their superiors to announce the arrest.
