Kenyan conflict disrupts supply chain inspections

Civil and political unrest in Kenya has led to the suspension of some social auditing programmes in the country until further notice.

Kenya, which is the location for several ethical supply chain projects, had been considered relatively stable, but violence sparked by disputed national election results has displaced more than 304,000 people and claimed more than 1000 lives.

Among projects affected are those run by the Ethical Tea Partnership, an association of 24 international tea companies. The partnership has had to suspend monitoring in some parts of the country to protect inspectors.

‘Any monitoring that we were planning to do has been postponed until the situation becomes better,’ said executive director Norman Kelly. ‘We didn’t have a big programme planned for January and we should be able to catch up as the situation hopefully returns to normal. But we will not put anyone at risk. They will only go in when the sites are safe.’ Kelly added that individual companies involved in its projects ‘are monitoring the situation on a day-to-day basis’.

Unilever, which recently began a certification programme with the Rainforest Alliance in Kenya (EP9, issue 3, p4), has also experienced some difficulties but said: ‘Certification is based on an annual assessment period, so any short-term shortfall in auditing will be made up quickly.’

Many of the projects are in the horticulture sector – Kenya’s second biggest foreign exchange earner after tourism – particularly flower exports to Europe. The Fairtrade Foundation, which runs a certification programme for rose nurseries in Kenya supplying Asda, John Lewis, Sainsbury’s, Somerfield and Tesco, said it had experienced ‘some disruption’ but that supplies and any associated monitoring were now largely back on track.

Kenya has 22 Fairtrade-certified producer organizations, more than any African country apart from South Africa, which has 38, according to Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, the Fairtrade standards body.