- KHRC and Somo had issued a report late last year detailing claims of sexual harassment by top bosses
- They say the investigation by Verra that led to lifting of the suspension was not credible
The American company involved in a carbon harvesting project in Taita Taveta is not off the hook over sexual harassment allegations.
Instead, two lobbies recommended that Verra, the international organisation that grants carbon credits, halts evaluating and awarding the credits to the Wildlife Works Carbon.
Kenya Human Rights Commission and Dutch organisation Somo issued a report last year detailing claims of sexual harassment by bosses within Wildlife Works Carbon, which is based in Kasigau village.
The allegations were raised by low-level employees of the company, who claimed the bosses demanded sexual favours before giving them jobs or promotions.
Verification of carbon credits for the company was put on ice in 2023, but the suspension has since been lifted after Verra said Wildlife Works Carbon had done corrective intervention, including removing the officials fingered.
Verra published the outcome of its review of the Kasigau project on February 1, 2024.
It concluded that Wildlife Works “has demonstrated that it is taking the actions required to address the alleged harm and to mitigate the risk of future harm.”
But KHRC and Somo say Verra's investigation was not credible, and that the company had not adequately addressed the concerns they raised in their report.
The review by Verra was based on self-reporting by Wildlife Works Carbon rather than independent sources that could be trusted.
“… [the report] appears to be based substantially on an internal investigation carried out by a law firm commissioned by Wildlife Works and on information provided by Wildlife Works to Verra, even though it was the company’s failures that were being investigated,” the lobbies said.
KHRC and Somo faulted Verra’s report on the claims of sexual abuse, saying it “fails to address many of the abuses identified in our research” and that victims were ignored.
“There is no suggestion in Verra’s review that the victims of abuse are relevant, let alone central, to any meaningful investigation into allegations of sexual harassment and abuse.
"The information presented in Verra’s report is based primarily on accounts by the same company that allowed these abuses to persist for years. Nor is there any suggestion that Verra has taken care to ensure that what it is told by Wildlife Works is accurate,” they said.
Witnesses used were selected based on “unknown criteria" and the probe was "conducted in a location that was used by one of the alleged perpetrators to coerce women into sex, suggesting a lack of awareness of basic good practice in interviewing victims of sexual abuse.”
“There was, based on our research, no apparent way for people to come forward and volunteer testimony. Yet, this is precisely what should have been done, offering people the chance to speak to the lawyers in places of their choice, where their privacy and dignity would be guaranteed.”
The two said the Kasigau review process thus compounds rather than remedies the abuses.
“Verra appears to be unaware that it presides over the very system that enabled serious sexual abuse to go undetected for so long and concludes its review by proposing to rely on the same wholly unfit tools to assess Kasigau going forward.”