The mere fact that Kenya celebrates Labour Day on May 1 does not mean everyone, including workers, are happy. Our workers are among the most oppressed and depressed in the world.
May 1 is not a day for the government or political party in power but a day that ought to be celebrated by all Kenyan workers. However, the poor condition that our workers live in buttresses the fact that there is nothing to celebrate after all.
The situation among our workers is getting worse now that the government is unable to perform its duties on several fronts. The standard of living among workers is deteriorating.
Evidently, the infrastructure of the life of ordinary workers has decayed. The greed of leaders has overwhelmed their responsibilities to improve workers' living standards.
Painfully and despite much talk by our leaders, our economy remains mono. The failure of successive administrations, including the present one, to diversify our economy has caused untold suffering among workers and in turn fueled corruption and insecurity. Meanwhile, workers are asked to roll out of the drums, wiggle and wriggle out of their deteriorating condition.
The condition of civil servants shows the hypocrisy of managers of our economy. What is there to celebrate when a worker is paid Sh6,000 per month while a politician who contributes nothing meaningful takes home Sh1.5 million to Sh2 million?
How can you prevent a civil servant who earns Sh6, 000 per month from being corrupt? These people have families to feed, clothe and children to pay school fees for. They have rent to pay and other bills to take care of. The worst part of it is that even the paltry salary is not paid on time.
What is there for workers to celebrate when a failed politician pockets as gratuity after five years of ‘service’ huge sums in the region of Sh25 million while a hardworking civil servant who served the government for 40 years knows they will not see Sh2 million when they retire?
Ironically, when the politicians' gratuities are delivered to them in their smartphones without breaking a sweat, retired civil servants go through hell in pursuit of theirs.
Labour Day celebrations are led by Cotu secretary general Francis Atwoli. Sadly, most Kenyan workers don’t know they belong to a labour union. Little is therefore expected of them on Labour Day.
Almost when you think trade unions in Kenya are dead and buried, Atwoli pops up on Labour Day only to talk about the minimum wage and warn that workers are running out of patience with the government over delay in negotiation of improved minimum wage.
Sadly, the only agenda that has been on the front burner of Cotu since it was founded in 1965 is the minimum wage.
As it is, Cotu is tactically and technically decimated. Subsidiary unions in Kenya have been agitating on their own. They are either threatening to strike or are striking already. Things have fallen apart because the centre can no longer hold. The workers of Kenya no longer speak as one body – It is to your tents O’ Israel! Everyone knows what follows when a body is scattered.
Had Cotu been pursuing worthy causes, may be it would win the sympathy of some of us who are not within the labour structure. Asking for a pay rise for civil servants every Labour Day is not the only ideal cause. It is a symptom of a disease that the union has failed to cure.
A genuine labour union is supposed to push for good governance that will ensure transparency in government business, lead to job creation for our millions of unemployed youth and ensure the stability of power supply. Isn’t it shameful that almost 60 years since Independence, most Kenyans have no access to clean water?
Each year, millions Kenyans are dying of mass poverty-induced hunger yet each year these unionists are shouting 'Solidarity forever' as they swear to 'always fight for our rights'. Shouldn’t they stop and think, which rights?
What is there to celebrate this Labour Day when our civil servants are among the most unproductive in the world? Besides chatting away in offices and stealing funds, most of them have little or no contribution to make. Admittedly, it is not a fault of theirs, but the system’s. Else, how can you explain a situation where 12 police officers and eight drivers are assigned to one governor? I call them jobless workers.
What is there to celebrate when many of our workers are not dedicated to their duties? For instance, doctors abandon patients on hospital beds when they are on strike. They don’t seem to observe ethics of their profession because they are after the filthy lucre. Teachers in public schools are no longer teaching – that explains well the current state of education in our country.
Our young generation has grown to hate work because they see no dignity of labour in their nation. Virtues such as honesty, hard work and dedication long skidded into the cesspool. Year on year, we keep awarding plaques of honour to charlatans and thieves while hardworking but poor workers are never noticed.
What is there to celebrate when the relationship between the poor work ethic and high rate of unemployment is so obvious? Or, how can you explain the paradox of having many young people looking for jobs and too many employers seeking dedicated workers and qualified workers to no avail?
What are we supposed to celebrate in a country full of paradoxes; a country that exports what it does not produce and imports what it produces; a country whose banks lend money to those who already have it in plenty, but refuse to give to those who seriously need it?
The writer sells bananas in the streets of Kisii town. [email protected]
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