Mistreatment and Gross Misconduct: Thika Cloth Mills Accused of Bribing Labour Ministry Officials to Muzzle Workers’ Revolt

A dark cloud hangs over Thika Cloth Mills as explosive allegations emerge that senior officials in the Ministry of Labour have been bribed to turn a blind eye to the suffering of hundreds of factory workers enduring years of mistreatment, harassment, and financial exploitation.

Sources within the textile giant claim that a well-oiled system of collusion between the company’s top management and rogue ministry officers has crippled any meaningful oversight, leaving employees trapped in silence.

The factory, owned and managed by the powerful Dhodhia family, is accused of violating Kenya’s labour laws with impunity while its directors allegedly use money and intimidation to keep whistleblowers at bay.

According to employees who spoke to Kenya Insights under anonymity for fear of victimisation, Labour officials stationed in Thika have for years been pocketing monthly “tokens of appreciation” to suppress complaints and bury audit reports.

The result has been a culture of impunity, where workers languish under delayed payments, unfulfilled pension promises, and retracted benefits that had been lawfully negotiated through collective bargaining agreements.

“Every time we push for our arrears or pension dues, they say the ministry has cleared the company. But we know how those clearances are bought,” said one senior worker with over 15 years at the mill.

The company’s Managing Director, Tejal Dhodhia, is accused of openly bragging about her political and bureaucratic connections, boasting that no one — not even Labour Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua — can touch her operations.

Employees describe a toxic environment where those daring to demand accountability are slapped with warnings, demotions, or outright dismissals engineered through loyalists embedded in the workers’ union.

Internal documents seen by Kenya Insights show that negotiated entitlements — including bonuses, leave allowances, and pension contributions — were approved in previous bargaining cycles but never implemented.

Instead, insiders claim, the management has attempted to erase key benefit clauses from the new collective agreement, sparking outrage among workers who view the move as a direct assault on their rights.

Union insiders paint an even murkier picture.

A branch official allegedly on the company’s payroll has been accused of leaking internal complaints to management and intimidating staff who demand access to payment records.

Several employees described him as a “messenger in a suit,” acting as the conduit between the company and corrupt labour officers.

“These people have sold our pain for brown envelopes,” said another worker. “They meet in hotels, take their cut, and then come back to tell us everything is being handled.”

Efforts by Kenya Insights to get a comment from Thika Cloth Mills’ management went unanswered. Repeated calls to the Labour Ministry’s Thika regional office were also ignored, while senior officials at the headquarters in Nairobi declined to discuss the matter on record, citing “ongoing internal review.”

Labour CS Alfred Mutua, who has been under increasing pressure to clean up his ministry, is now being called upon to launch a thorough probe into the Thika scandal.

Civil society groups have warned that failure to act would expose the government’s hypocrisy on workers’ welfare and embolden rogue employers to continue exploiting vulnerable Kenyans.

For now, the spinning machines at Thika Cloth Mills continue to hum, but behind the rhythmic whirring lies a haunting silence — of hundreds of workers stripped of their dignity, their voices buried under piles of forged reports, paid silence, and bureaucratic betrayal.

Kenya Insights will continue monitoring developments in this unfolding labour scandal.