Francis Lumasayi Atwoli is engaging in an interesting — perhaps nonsensical — fight over the renaming of a road in Kileleshwa after him.
The Nairobi government on May 27 renamed Dik Dik Road in Kileleshwa as Francis Atwoli Road.
Speaking after the brief ceremony, the veteran Cotu secretary-general said the recognition was in honour of his service to Kenyan workers.
But even before the concrete holding the signpost had dried, Kileleshwa residents had brought it down.
Atwoli moved to have it erected again.
“The Nairobi County Government has reinstalled the sign. If you think you came from the moon go try to remove it again. Also, a CCTV has been installed for the security of the area,” Atwoli fired back on Twitter.
It also emerges the renaming of the road did not follow due process.
In June 2017, the National Addressing System Strategy Development and Implementation Committee proposed new rules prohibiting the use of names of living persons. The rules abolished any changes to existing street names.
But still, the matter was not debated and approved in the Nairobi county assembly, despite Roysambu MCA Peter Warutere tabling the motion.
Warutere argued that Atwoli had a 54-year continuous public service record of fighting for social justice for Kenyan workers and at the global level.
Atwoli, he of the shenzi sana phrase and Ala! Ala! meme, was in April this year re-elected unopposed for a fifth term. He was first elected to the helm of Cotu in 2001.
President Uhuru Kenyatta in his foreword for Judith K Akuma and Babere Kerata Chacha’s biography Francis Atwoli: Fame, Force and Fury described him as the most flamboyant trade unionist and defender of workers’ rights in Kenya since the exit of Tom Mboya in the 1960s.
“Through sheer hard work, aggressiveness, and commitment to the labour ideals, Atwoli has made a name for himself not just in Kenya, but also in the region and globally. Presently, he stands shoulder to shoulder with the labour luminaries of yesteryears - Tom Mboya, Dennis Akumu, Clement Lubembe, Boy Juma Boy and Joseph Mugalla,” Uhuru wrote.
Born in 1947 in Kakamega county, western Kenya, Atwoli joined the labour force as an employee of the then East African Posts and Telecommunications Corporation aged 19.
He later joined the trade union movement in 1967 as a shop steward from where he rose through the ranks to be Cotu boss.
Akuma and Chacha trace Atwoli’s journey from Khwisero village, to Nairobi to the streets of capitals of labour movement Accra, Khartoum, Brussels, and Geneva.
Some critics, however, say he has in the recent past prioritised succession politics over workers' interests.
It is Atwoli who created a political storm about a possible third term for Uhuru when he said the president is too young to retire. The Constitution provides for only two terms.
His stature has risen in leaps and his Ildamat home in Kajiado county has become the meeting point for brokers of 2022 succession. They meet there and parade for photo ops. Atwoli has also been one of the leading BBI promoters.
“Total disgrace to name a street in Nairobi after Francis Atwoli. What are we telling poor workers he abandoned for the sake of the Jubilee government? He is a billionaire in a country where labour is enslaved by capital owners. He dines and wines with the rich and powerful and is disdainful of the poor,” Senior Counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi said on Twitter.
But Atwoli said his record speaks for itself, and his influence is out of the growth of the labour movement in Kenya.
Other than leading Cotu, Atwoli was/ is also a member of the National Labour Board of Kenya; deputy president of Accra-based Organisation of African Trade Union Unity; president of Trade Union Federation of Eastern Africa based in Khartoum; vice president of International Trade Union Confederation in Belgium and Chairman of East African Trade Union Confederation in Arusha.
He is married to Jenifer Khainza, Roselinder Simiyu and journalist Mary Kilobi.
The Cotu boss said in a past interview that he has 17 children and has adopted 74 others.
