Implementing a baby-friendly workplace initiative in Kenya: Lessons learned from supporting exclusive breastfeeding in a private tea plantation in Kericho

About

Established at the inception of the tea industry in Kenya in the 1920s, the Kericho tea plantation spans a vast 8,700 hectares of land. It provides employment to 12,000 permanent workers and up to 5,000 seasonal workers; 32 per cent of all workers are women.1 Tea estate workers live with their families in small concrete homes with basic comforts: a rudimentary cooking area, a living room, solar-generated electricity and communal access to clean drinking water and toilets. The tea estate provides access to social halls, schools, grocery shops, free health care – and more recently, as part of this initiative – affordable day-care centres. It is home to approximately 80,000 plantation workers and their families, living in 112 villages.