Nairobi — Machines could soon replace more than 3,000 tea pickers in Nandi South District.

The Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Union accused the local multinational tea companies of planning to retrench the pluckers without first consulting it.

Branch secretary Joshua Oyuga said he opposed plucking machines because they would render thousands of workers jobless.

One machine manned by four people, he said, could do the work of 200 tea pickers.

Addressing workers in his Nandi Town office, Mr Oyuga questioned the need for such machines when Kenyans faced a high unemployment rate.

Saying the machines had been rejected in Kericho and Limuru, he vowed that they would not be allowed in Nandi.

Tea companies in Nandi employ more than 35,000 workers, mostly tea pickers.

The union, Mr Oyuga said, was also against using helicopters to spray fertilisers, since they pollute rivers and affect people, livestock and pasture.

Workers living near the estates feared for their lives because there was a lot of pollution from small rivers which also affected livestock and pasture.

He said the companies had been using excuses of the falling value of the shilling compared to the dollar to retrench workers.