Source : Medical Officers, Chubwa and Nahortoli estates. For Nahortoli the figured are for calendar years.
figured are for calendar years.
that Finlay had special responsibilities. Conditions there, they claimed, were probably the worst in the world. A report for the UK Overseas Development Ministry in 1977 had described a situation of declines in real wages since 1977, labour lines 'considerably short of international standards', 'almost non-existent' latrines, 'low nutritional standards' and a workforce apathetic because of its ignorance and malnutrition. While the report does not specify that Finlay's estates had all these features it does not .specifically exclude them either. Sir Colin's only response was to claim that "our native workers overseas . choose to work for the company on the open market, which proves they are happy and eager with their lot". The fact of course is that there really is no 'open market' on tea AGRICULTURE estates, with their ethnically distinctive populations. In Kenya the situation is different, in that most workers are temporarily migrant, leaving families behind and returning each year. Here it is more difficult to specify company responsibilities and the extent to which they are neglected.