Government, unions do not care about workers, Gachagua says

Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua on Tuesday made a scathing attack against the government and labor unions for neglecting workers, who he says have now been left on their own, with their dignity shattered.

Gachagua said that Kenyan workers expected to get relief and hope on Labour Day but all they received were false promises repeated year after year, insisting that the journey to restore mutilated pay slips has begun.

Historically, he stated that Labour Days are rooted in the understanding that dignity of every worker is a public good that must be protected at all cost, adding that fair pay, decent work environment and treatment as well as worker solidarity must stem.  

In a stinging statement, Gachagua did not spare Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU- Kenya) Secretary General, Francis Atwoli over what he termed as neglecting workers’ plight over the years and turning himself into a ‘professional broker’.

“Unfortunately, here in Kenya, most of the workers are on their own. We have a labor union led by a Secretary General, a professional broker who dines with every government in power for his selfish interests. On May 1, when he should have agitated for the rights of the Kenyan worker, he was seen dancing with oppressors shouting ‘two term’. What a shame!” Gachagua uttered.

He made the remarks during the launch of Kenya Labour Market and Workers' Welfare report in a Nairobi hotel.

Gachagua challenged workers to consider registering a rival union, saying it is about time another alternative organization is created to champion the rights of the Kenya workers and they can subsequently have a choice.

“I want to urge you to start forming that body but I know Ruto will frustrate the registration of that organization…get your people working, get the members in order and next year in October when we are in office, we shall register the new organization that will champion the interest of the Kenyan workers,” he stated.

But in a swift rejoinder, Atwoli’s Personal Assistant, Bruno Otiato dismissed Gachagua, saying he did not take the time to follow what happened.

If Gachagua had followed, Otiato said, he would have discovered that the president announced a 12 per cent general wages increment that would cut across all forms of employment in the country. 

 In the country, he said the lowest paid workers are mostly in the agricultural sector but the president announced a 15 per cent rise in the minimum wages adding that the low-cadre workers in this sector would receive a 15 per cent increase in the minimum wages,

“In his address, the SG spoke to construction workers and the need to make them long-term, where they have certification and their pay scale is actually negotiated at a national level. The President agreed to that and already there is a council being formed on the construction negotiation council, the wages council,” he told The Standard.

He also said another outcome was the ratification of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 189 and 190, where the President announced it is forthcoming to the cabinet.

According to Otiato, another outcome was on outsourcing of labor, with the president saying outsourced workers will be treated as normal employees and even granted pay slip, complete with statutory reductions.

He also said that COTU requested to be part of the National Social Economic Council, which will realize the vision centenary of the country. 

“So, Gachagua says Labor Day was all about politics, indeed there was politics but the reason why, is because it is the labor movement that fought for the political independence of this country. Politics affects everything; it affects the worker. The only thing we called for was political stability and workers’ bodies are at liberty to align with a political force that represents their interests,” he insisted.

Gachagua, however, insisted that the people entrusted to speak for the Kenyan workers have abandoned them.

“The Atwolis of this world are a disgrace to Kenyan workers. I cannot understand how workers, every time there is an election for COTU-K, they go back and vote same person,” he said.

He accused Atwoli of abandoning workers and becoming the ‘lead singer for Ruto’s praise and worship team’.

“I remember when we came into office with Ruto in 2022, Atwoli had been on record campaigning for Azimio and actually advising Ruto to look for a tree where he should hang himself because he would lose. I couldn’t believe it when I found him in State House and he was there laughing and dancing in the corridor and I asked Ruto how come he is here… he (Ruto) laughed sheepishly and told me, you don’t seem to understand that in this country every man has a price…”

According to Gachagua, Kenyan workers in the Middle East, UAE and other countries are distressed, thousands of them are unaccounted for, others in dangerous war zones and indecent work as the Ruto Regime demands that Kenyans clap hands for them.

“If any Kenyan must be taken to work anywhere in the world, let it be decent work with equal pay for equal work done,” he stated.