9-Year-Old Boy Crushed to Death
Farmer using tea plucking machine/photo courtesy/
A nine-year-old boy died on the spot after being cut by a tea-plucking machine at the Cheptabes Tea estate in Kericho County.
According to the Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union (KPAWU) Kericho branch secretary, Dickson Sang, the boy was playing near the machine as it was harvesting tea at the farm owned by the James Finlays Tea Company.
It is reported that the boy was curious and wanted to know how the machine operate. He therefore got inside the tea bushes where the tea harvesting blade was passing through so as to have a look at how the machine works.
His head was chopped off in the process, before the machine tossed him away to a distance of almost 100 meters.
A supervisor on duty then noticed that there were some clothes around the blades and after going to check, he discovered that they were the boy’s.
Sang accuses the company of using the machine on the farm without conducting a risk assessment and never seemed to care as normal work went on in the company after the incident.
The secretary claimed many accidents have happened since the introduction of the machines and want the issue addressed urgently.
In a statement to the media, James Finlay Company regretted the accident saying they will support the family, wider community and staff.
They said they were working closely with the investigating authorities to establish how the accident happened.
The body of the deceased was transferred to the Kericho County Referral Hospital mortuary.
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