Police have increased security patrols on a private farm in Nandi County after a group of goons invaded it.
They went ahead and plucked tea after chasing workers at sites.
Such incidents where investors are attacked are in the rise in the area with the support of some local leaders.
The move by police came after a group of about 100 invaded the Eastern Produce Kenya Limited tea estate and demanded the workers to leave.
EPK is an agricultural firm engaging in the growing and marketing of tea in Kenya.
Security manning the farm said the villagers referred to as Kimasas invaded the company’s field three of tea plantation in the Sitoi area and started to pluck tea.
The group also chased away the company’s workers and threatened to harm them should they be found in the said field.
The group has been claiming that the farm belongs to them and therefore has all the rights to pluck tea from it.
Police have also asked the local leaders to talk to the villagers behind the incident as part of efforts to address the menace.
As part of efforts to address the issue, more armed police were deployed to the expansive farms to man them.
The officers have been ordered to shoot any intruder into the farm.
Such incidents of invasion of farms have been on the rise in the recent past. Some have also been invading gold mining sites, which are in the area.
In some incidents, the illegal miners out to chase the owners from the sites were killed after the tunnels collapsed.
Most of the investors are non-locals and feel threatened by the moves.
Some say a section of leaders in the area are behind the trend for extortion.
Police say the incidents are under probe.
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