Sexual harassment, A word that triggers a commotion of bitter emotions when uttered.
To many it remains a dreadful nightmare, but to the female workers in Kasigau project in Taita taveta, this is a nightmare that they wake up and experience a dose of the reality side of the cruel act.
Imagine a scenario where you are often intimidated, and sexually harassed by your boss. You are helpless, in trepidation, and if you offer any resistance to him, he will shutter your job.
This is a dilemma that hits hard the female junior working force at the Kasigau project on a daily basis.
”We live and work in fear, because we can be dismissed at any time without good reason,” an employee at the project testified.
A joint investigation carried out by the Kenya Human Rights Commission(KHRC) and centre for Research and Multinational Corporation(SOMO), has managed to uncover sexual abuse, harassment, and exploitation of women by senior male employees of the US based headquartered company, Wildlife works at their Kasigau project in Taita Taveta, Kenya.
“Our investigation into the world’s most celebrated carbon offsetting projects in Kenya, known as the Kasigau corridor REDD+ Project, uncovered widespread sexual harassment and abuse,” stated a SOMO researcher whose name remains anonymous for security reasons”
SOMO and KHRC investigators, got a chance to interview 31 current and former employees of the project both male and female, who exposed how the helpless junior women workers, and women living in the neighboring villages around the company’s premises, face sexual harassment from powerful officials from the company.
The senior men in the project often demand sex from the junior working female staffs in exchange of promotions and other work related benefits.
if one resists the demands, repercussions which include bullying, intimidation and denied promotions will follow them.
“Women are treated as sex objects but nothing happens because the perpetrators who intimidate everyone,” one employee testified.
Casualties, got to share with SOMO investigators on moments when the senior staffs took advantage of them while at work.
“One day while we were on duty, I got into the office and my boss started touching my body including my private parts,” testified another female employee whose identity was not revealed.
Poverty in the region has placed the victims in a dangerous position where they fear losing their jobs in the project since they don’t have any other job options.
This fact has propelled senior officers in the company to take advantage of them which as a result, the workers often feel disrespected and unfairly treated.
“Again and again we heard harrowing accounts of assault, abuse, intimidation, and degradation of women by men in position of power at wildlife work’s Kasigau project,” stated SOMO director Audrey Gaughran.
The inhumane nature of the company has not only been dominant in the company’s premises, but has also extended it’s bounds to the women living in local communities and villages near the company.
Victims got a chance to recall horrific experiences on how rangers from world life works have always humiliated and harassed them both sexually and physically, incidences that left them traumatised, humiliated and also experienced infliction of physical pain.
“We were three ladies, and we went to fetch firewood. And then we met with wildlife ranger, they stopped us and they took the firewood from us, and they burned it completely. They commanded us to kneel on hard ground,” said one of the victims.
“They kept on abusing us and one of them even threatened to sodomise us,” the victim added.
The ongoing sexual harassment and abusement from top powerful officials in the company has over the days proven that commercial carbon offsetting is a problematic and false solution to the climate crisis and is only resulting, to serious human rights abuses.
The Kenya human rights commission(KHRC) has stressed that perpetrators must be held to account and safeguards be put in place to protect the human rights of the wildlife works employees and the local communities.
The commission has further urged urged the Kenya government to conduct an independent investigation into the sexual abuse allegations at Kasigau project.
SOMO have expressed their disappointment on the many auditing firms who are still giving the project a green light to conduct their activities, and multinationals who are purchasing credits from the project.
“What’s shocking is that many auditing firms, continue to give this project a green light. On top of that there are some major due diligence failure on the multinational like Netflix, Mc kinsy and Microsoft who purchase credits from this project to offset their carbon emissions,” said Maria Hengeveld, a researcher in SOMO.
