The
Highland Tea Company, LLC was founded by Watiri and Wanja Michuki, Kenyan mother and daughter, to wholesale and retail Kenyan specialty teas.
Watiri is a member of the small-scale farming community that collectively grows most of Kenya’s tea. She planted the first seedlings on her beautiful 30-acre tea garden (pictured below), which she affectionately called ‘Karurumo’- meaning 'Little Treasure' in the Kikuyu language. In 1991, she incorporated The Highland Tea Company in Kenya with a mission to grow and distribute only the finest premium teas and, in the process, provide her children with a solid education.
I'm all for what Highland Tea represents. However, the back story is a load of crap. The Michukis are one of the wealthiest families in Kenya, owning a lot of tea plantations, hotels, golf courses. Unfortunately, the wealth is born of ill-gotten gains and corruption. Mr. Michuki - Wanja's father is a horribly corrupt government entity who will stoop at nothing, not even killing innocent people, to maintain and increase his political and financial gains. Highland Tea might be successful now, by virtue of clever (yet somewhat misleading) marketing by it's helmswoman, but the initial capital, and the actual unprocessed tea that they use are tainted in poor people's blood. None of the profits go back to help the poor Kenyans that this family has destroyed the uber-rich get richer. I'd love to link relevant articles for you, but refuse to do your homework for you...look it up, though, it's all on the internet.
ReplyDelete