Judge tells tea firm to stop Kenya legal action

A tea company is being ordered to stop taking legal action in Kenya to block a lawsuit in Scotland, the BBC has reported.

More than 1,000 former and current employees of James Finlay Kenya Ltd (JFK) are suing the company for damages at Scotland's supreme civil court, the Court of Session.

Last month, the firm won a temporary injunction from a court in Nairobi, stopping workers from pursing the case.

A Court of Session judge has now ruled that JFK should be told to halt action in Kenya.

That will allow the lawsuit in Scotland to get back on track. The workers claim they suffered musculoskeletal injuries while working for Aberdeen-registered JFK at its farms in the Kericho region of Kenya. They have signed up to group proceedings – a class action lawsuit – in the Court of Session in Edinburgh.

Having failed to stop the lawsuit from going ahead, the company opened up a second front in the legal battle by seeking an order from the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nairobi.

It argued that the Scottish case was an "an assault on the sovereignty of the Republic of Kenya" and violated the country's constitution.

The company said the "proper and natural forum" for a work injury dispute involving Kenyan workers governed by Kenyan law was in Kenya, not Scotland.