@VVS

LOL !!

Agree, Kapchorua for sure is pure tea farms albeit, very good ones(plantation,factory,railway line), efficient, well managed, ONLY if they could end slave labour, and they do have enough money to do so. I do have very strong issues with that and so did Jean-Marie Seroney who was a great friend of mine when I worked there.

Williamson has more exposure besides RV throughout- Limuru (tea farms), Mombasa (warehouses), Nairobi( hq, properties) etc...

Surburbs are bound to move out of Nairobi, and the best bet is Limuru side ...

Been accumulating both since 2006 ...

Cheers!

@VVS, In an environment where "wage" employment is below 20% or thereby, there is bound to be many looking for those jobs regardless of working conditions. WT/Kapchoria are making enough money to treat workers fairly.

I would encourage you to visit those labour camps you call housing. The paliticians are taskmasters in those plantations with not only enonomic power but also political might.

Also, examine those kicked out of the labour camps at the end of their contracts. a) they work so many days/hours ... Monday to Sat, down to dusk b) zero holidays c) Zero linkages to the families where they came from that d) at the end of labour contract they have nowhere to go, becomes sqautters, ( see examples of Limuru labourers from nearby plantations, settled at the then Limuru road jucntion at a place called Misri (Egypt named after Jews enslavement in Egypt) e) they live hand to mouth and those wages are hardly enuff for food f) education for their kids, last time i was there there were makeshift schools that WT/Kapchorua demolished often after they found them on their property. ... more issues if you like...

Tu quoque (you too)is a very common logical fallacy ... that workers are treated worse off at politicians plantations therefore WT/Kapchorua must be treating workers well. Is double tragedy.

The last point is a great insight, what ails productivity in ALL sectors in Kenya is the Capital /labour ratios. I'm all for more innovative capital including at tea industries. However, such capital innovations, may be tempered with increased manufacturing, for example, instead of packaging tea in crates, package them at the consumer level plus other innovations like tea based beverages ... other products ...and so forth ...

Plantations can manage to continue to do well, treat workers well, increase manufacturing and our investments can do well. Removing these fears in part of WT/Kapchorua and others will give them confidence instead of always figuring how to cut loss and run in case of trouble...

@VVS

I think you read me wrong ... I have no issues with tea picking machinery, as I said they enhance productivity and as a general observation, there is less capital employment in Kenya, which IMHO would enhance productivity if there were a better Capital/Labour ratios.

BTW, investments are hardly morally based :) ...

Exactly! DO NOT block technology, embrace it thereby getting more industrialized ...

I see more and more small to medium local growers taking the packaging option and doing well ...

I'm currently doing some research for small scale machinery for processing and packaging for local markets, we think this will more than doubling profitability,

Have a great week & best with your investments.

LOL...

Union asks firms to reinstate tea workers

http://www.nation.co.ke/...-/1312ob3z/-/index.html

Nonsense! Tell them that they have been replaced by the Machines... If they complain send a Terminator to take care of them...

Seriously, what did they expect? The machines are coming... That is the reality...

I feel sorry for the folks losing their jobs but that's the reality... We drive cars not use horses, we use electricity not charcoal, we use computers not slates...