On the Cheptabes Tea plantation in Kericho County, a self-propelled tea-plucking equipment slashed a nine-year-old kid to death.
The youngster was playing close to the machine as it was harvesting tea at the James Finlays Tea Company plantation, according to Dickson Sang, secretary of the Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union (KPAWU) Kericho chapter.
The child was interested in learning how the machinery worked, according to Sang. He reportedly entered the tea bushes where the machine was moving through to get a sight of the blades’ operation as they harvested the tea.
Before the machine threw his torso about 100 meters away, his skull was chopped-off in the process.
The boy’s torso was found after a supervisor went to investigate after noticing that there were some clothing surrounding the blades.
He charged the business with utilizing the equipment on the farm without performing a risk analysis and voiced his worries that business as usual continued at the firm even after the disaster.
Since the machines’ introduction, the secretary said that numerous mishaps have occurred, which needs to be rectified immediately.
James Finlay Company expressed sadness for the incident in a statement to the media, promising to support the staff, family, and community at large.
They claimed that they were closely collaborating with the investigative authorities, who had already initiated inquiries and evaluated the functioning of their company’s self-propelled tea harvesters.
The deceased’s body was brought to the mortuary of the Kericho County Referral Hospital.
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