LafargeHolcim and G4S, Pursued by Kenyan Villagers for Rights Abuses, Face Serial Complaints in Africa

The corporate and social responsibility of the two multinationals in the Denyenye village land dispute has been called into question in several countries, with a criminal conviction against Lafarge in the US. Yet some institutional investors continue to turn a blind eye.

Residents of a village in Kwale county on Kenya’s luxuriant coast are locked in combat with two multinationals as they fight for justice against repeated human rights abuses by the companies’ employees.

It is a battle of David-versus-Goliath proportions. The people of Denyenye, mainly subsistence farmers, are among the most marginalised people in Kenya. They are taking on Holcim Group, previous called LafargeHolcim, with operations in 70 countries, employing 63,000 people, and earning revenues of $20bn a year. They claim Holcim does not have legal rights over the land it wants to mine through its subsidiary, Bamburi Cement.

To guard the land, the company has hired the private-security multinational G4S, which was bought in 2021 by the American firm Allied Universal. That merger turned Allied into the McDonald’s of the private-security industry, generating $20bn in revenues. It works in 90 countries and employs 800,000 people around the world.

Livelihood criminalised

Forced off their historic lands, the farmers in Denyenye have been impoverished and subjected to attacks by corrupt local police and Bamburi’s security guards. The villagers’ livelihoods — gathering firewood, grazing their cattle and fishing in the ocean — have been criminalised, with the Bamburi company accusing them of theft and trespass.

The Digo community, which depend on farming and fishing, have been hardest hit, along with some artisanal miners cutting building stones.

Since the land claimed by Bamburi Cement borders their village and the ocean, the Denyenye villagers have to pass through it to fish. That is when they risk being attacked by the security guards and the police.

The G4S guards tell us they will release the dogs on us — [but] we will go nowhere because Bamburi has money.

Shee Mbimbi, a Denyenye villager bitten by dogs in an attack by G4S guards

“Now that they may not fish or farm, some have resorted to selling firewood, which is presenting a new risk,” said Jermaine Kashi, director of the Kwale Mining Alliance, a local human rights organisation assisting the Denyenye villagers.

“Bamburi should just give us our land back so we can sustain our livelihoods. The G4S guards tell us they will release the dogs on us — [but] we will go nowhere because Bamburi has money,” said Shee Mbimbi, a Denyenye villager nursing untreated dog bite wounds from an attack by G4S guards last year.

Both LafargeHolcim and G4S have faced accusations of corporate corruption and rights abuses. Lafarge was reported across the international media to have paid Islamic State millions of dollars in ‘protection money’ so it could continue its business in Syria during the civil war, prompting the US State Department to file criminal charges against LafargeHolcim. It pleaded guilty and in 2022 the US Justice Department fined it $778m. In a French court, the company was accused of complicity in crimes against humanity.

In Africa, where the multinational has operations in nine countries, its track record was dented by a 2023 Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) complaint filed by a Uganda human-rights organisation. The complaint was centred on the environmental impact and accompanying human-rights violations at its Hima Cement plant, which sources pozzolan, a volcanic rock. The complaint was concluded when, in 2024, LafargeHolcim sold its Ugandan business.

The Mfamosing community in River State in Nigeria complains about the limestone LafargeHolcim is mining in its midst — without consulting local people.

G4S and its track record in Africa

Like LafargeHolcim, G4S has crossed swords with several communities and governments in Africa. It employs around 22,000 people in Africa and has come under fire in South Africa. It stands accused of allowing torture, murder and involuntary medication with anti-psychotic drugs as a form of ‘crowd control’ in the privately run Mangaung prison.

In 2023, the spectacular escape of Thabo Bester from Mangaung prison made the government step in and take back control of the prison for the second time. That reportedly culminated in the termination of G4S’s prison management contract, but correctional services minister Pieter Groenewald confirmed to eNCA television two weeks ago that G4S was still operating there.

G4S staff have gone on strike in Nigeria, Kenya, Malawi, and South Africa, saying they were being paid ‘poverty wages’. In Kenya, G4S employees have frequently taken strike action because of low wages and dangerous working conditions. On 4 November, G4S announced plans to make 400 employees redundant in Kenya.

G4S staff were accused in serial media reports of roughing up refugees who tried to access the offices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Nairobi, and footage of the clashes was widely circulated on social media platforms. The company’s officers were also accused of taking bribes from migrants in the refugee camp Dadaab, where G4S had a security contract. Replying to our questions about these incidents, Njoki Mwangi of UNHCR told us on 22 November: “UNHCR has an existing contract with G4S to provide security services in Nairobi, Kakuma and Dadaab,” adding that all specific allegations against the company are subject to investigation.

The company is one of Kenya’s biggest private employers and it lands contract after contract. G4S Kenya is almost wholly owned by G4S Netherlands. Seven different Dutch pension funds have invested in G4S/Allied Universal entities. G4S’s mother company, Allied Universal, is also majority owned by a pension fund, the Canadian Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec (CDPQ), with Can $452bn ($321.9bn) in assets, providing retirement money for 6.4 million contributors and beneficiaries.

Allied Universal is privately held, and this means that the structure of the company is opaque: Outsiders and researchers cannot scrutinise its business practices or financial constructions. The American private-equity firm Warburg Pincus, together with CDPQ, owns 73% of Allied Universal. There are 11 other smaller owners of the group, including ABBHI Capital, A&M Capital, MKH Capital Prtners, Auldbrass Partners and W Capital Partners.

Pension funds have a moral obligation to ethically invest the retirement money of their members. Due to G4S’s dire track record internationally, various pension funds have divested from the multinational. In 2019, the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) divested from two other private security multinationals: GEO Group and CoreCivic.

Allied Universal underlines in its ‘guiding principles to ethical and responsible business’: “Commitment to respecting human rights and fulfilling humanitarian responsibilities toward its employees, customers, suppliers, investors, and communities it serves.”

The Canadian pension fund CDPQ is yet to respond to our questions about the future of its holdings in Allied Universal.

This publication was made possible with the support of the Fund for Special Journalistic Projects in the Netherlands.

Ruth Hopkins works for onderzoekscollectief Spit.