Sugarcane workers have threatened to stage a protest during the upcoming Madaraka Day celebration fete in Bungoma county over unpaid arrears amounting to more than Sh3 billion. https://rb.gy/b1xfyk
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00:00that they are supposed to be paid before the companies are leased out.
00:08Initially, it was supposed that before December last year,
00:12that is when the government had promised that they would have paid the arrears
00:17before the leasing process takes effect.
00:20What surprised us is that the farmers are the ones who are paid part of the arrears
00:26and it remained around 20% of the arrears.
00:31Workers were promised that they should wait for a supplementary budget
00:36which will address the issue of workers' arrears.
00:40We have waited and unfortunately,
00:44we have managed to access the proposed supplementary budget.
00:49And in that supplementary budget, what they have factored in
00:53is the balance that is supposed to be paid to the farmers, the 20%,
00:57and nothing to the workers.
01:01The president, when he was in Njoya,
01:05he promised the workers that he is going to pay the three months' arrears to the workers.
01:11The other part should remain that they be paid alongside other people.
01:16And that was last year.
01:18Up to now, that three months has not been paid.
01:22I don't know if I can say, fortunately,
01:25the president will be in Bungoma celebrating Madaraka Day.
01:30We don't know what he is going to tell the workers
01:33because workers will be up in arms waiting for his comment after,
01:37unfortunately, he did not keep to his promise.
01:41So, as workers were planning to demonstrate in Bungoma on June 1st,
01:48when the president will be there,
01:51at the same time, we want him to state to us
01:55why these things are being applied discriminatively,
01:59because workers are not being paid, yet the farmers are being paid.
02:03The management that did not pay farmers
02:06is the same management that did not pay workers.
02:09Therefore, you cannot apply these things discriminatively.
02:13It all amounts to debts owed by the company,
02:16either to the farmers or to the workers, to the suppliers and the rest.
02:21Leasing will not take effect until the workers are paid.
02:25And this I can repeat several times.
02:28We have a case in court, and what we will do is just to activate that case,
02:33then we serve them with orders not to proceed with the process of leasing until we are paid.
02:39And this is a fact that we cannot hide away from.
02:43So, they must make sure that in this supplemental budget,
02:47they factor in arrears owed to the workers,
02:51which is totaling to around 3.something billion shillings.
02:58With the figures they have, they took records of the workers,
03:01they know the amount that is owed to the workers.
03:04So, there is no justification why they should keep on shelving the issues of workers
03:09as they concentrate only on farmers.
03:12We are bitter, we are not happy the way the government is handling this issue.