Kenyan police are investigating four suspected killings on a Del Monte pineapple farm after bodies were retrieved from a river on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
It follows a joint investigation by the Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism into allegations of brutal assaults and killings by security guards at the farm in Thika, which is the single largest exporter of Kenyan produce to the world.
This month the Guardian revealed that human rights groups were investigating another death at the farm after a man’s body was found in its dam in November.
Friends and relatives of the four men found dead on 24 and 25 December urged the government to intervene to explain how they ended up in the river.
The Muranga county police commander, David Kainga Mathiu, said: “Kenyan police have launched investigations into the killings of people inside the Del Monte pineapple farm.” He told Reuters that no suspects had yet been arrested.
On Wednesday, Del Monte said it was “cooperating with Kenyan authorities as they continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the four bodies retrieved from the Thika River last week. The postmortems are still under way. Our security footage from when the men attempted to steal pineapple shows no foul play on Del Monte’s part and instead shows them running away towards the river, after dropping bags of stolen pineapple, as they tried to run away from security guards.”
It added: “Organised crime, particularly around pineapple theft, is becoming increasingly rampant in the area. We are actively seeking additional ways to help tackle organised crime as safely and effectively as possible.”
The company, which employs 6,000 people in Kenya, said it was working closely with local authorities and “takes our social responsibility very seriously there, as we do everywhere else where we operate”.
A search had been going on for the missing men for several days when two bodies were found in the river on Sunday, and another two were found on Monday, the independent broadcaster Citizen TV reported.
“When we found the first body, we started screaming,” Rhoda Wayua told Citizen TV. “After a while, the second body washed up. It was that of my son.”
Another relative, Peter Kamanzi, claimed that at least one of the victims had injuries that may have contributed to his death. “It’s quite visible that this boy was seriously beaten up,” Kamanzi said.
The body of Peter Mutuku Mutisya, 25, was found on 17 November, four days after friends said he had gone there to steal pineapples. A spokesperson for Del Monte said it had “fully cooperated with Kenyan authorities throughout its investigation last month” and offered its “heartfelt condolences to the family”.
