Workers, employers and other stakeholders in Uasin Gishu County on Monday failed to commemorate Labor Day, an annual international celebration.
The celebrations were to be held at the Central Primary School Grounds in Eldoret town.
However, the event could not go on after it emerged that there were no chairs for those attending to sit on.
Uasin Gishu branch Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU) chairman Peter Odima claimed it was the county’s fault that the event could not proceed.
According to Odima, the County had committed to facilitate chairs for the event, only not fail to keep the promise.
“We’re at the venue given by the county which has usually facilitated chairs and we spoke with the County Secretary who said he would support but he never turned up,” the COTU official told journalists.
He noted that it was a shame the county where the President comes from was not able to celebrate Labour Day.
“We lacked chairs and it’s shame that Labor day did not happen because of the county’s failure,” Odima added.
Similar sentiments were shared by Rodgers Ombati, a COTU official in the country.
Minimum wage
It is the first time, aside from during COVID-19 period that Eldoret has failed to mark Labor Day.
“We hope this will never happen again. This is the celebration for both employer and employees,” Ombati said.
But according to the Uasin Gishu Governor’s Director of Communications Sila Kosgey, there was no county government’s commitment to facilitating the event.
He says Labor Day is an international event majorly financed by COTU.
“Most counties in this region did not mark the day. People mainly followed the main event in Nairobi where the President attended,” Kosgey told Uasin Gishu News.
The two trade unionists said there were many issues they hope would have been addressed during the celebrations.
Some of them include low pay to workers and arbitrary layoffs by employers.
They noted that despite the minimum wage for Eldoret workers being Ksh16,130, some of the employers pay far less than that.
“The economy is bad yet people as still being paid as low as Ksh5,000 a month. We need action against such individuals,” noted the COTU official.
He asked County Labour officer to conduct regular inspection and ensure the minimum wage is strictly followed by every employer.
