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Kenya: Workers' Fury Over Pay
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The East African Standard (Nairobi)
2 May 2008
Posted to the web 1 May 2008
Abiya Ochola And Patrick Wachira
Nairobi
This year's Labour Day celebrations ended dramatically when a hostile crowd openly protested and walked out on President Kibaki after he failed to announce a much-awaited pay raise.
Trouble started when the President ended his address, but failed to touch on the sensitive issue of wages, forcing a section of the agitated crowd to protest.
The crowd demanded that President Kibaki address the thorny issue, but he instead gave a lecture why it was not possible to increase wages.
"Shida ilioko sasa ni kubwa na kwa sababu shilingi za kuongeza mshaara sasa hivi mimi siwezi kusema (The country is currently facing an economic crunch and let me tell you it is not possible to come up with a salary increase now," the President tried to explain to the angry crowd.
"Tafadhali mnisikilize. Hata kama hamtaki kusikia, huo ndio ukweli wa mambo ilivyo na hatuwezi kuyaepuka. (Please listen. But even if you do not want to listen, that is the position and there is no way you can avoid it)," Kibaki pleaded even as the crowd defied him.
But as if moving in tandem with the mood of the Labour Day celebrations, weather patterns at Uhuru Park kept changing. The erratic weather pattern ensured that temperatures fluctuated from a mild chill early in the morning to sunny, then cold and sunny spells again.
By mid-afternoon, temperatures were still low. Perhaps the weather pattern was indicative of the political and economic wellbeing of wananchi, whose fortunes have continued to change from peace to gloom and doom, death and destruction, then to hope and reconciliation.
From as early as 9am in Nairobi, hundreds of workers began trooping to Uhuru Park to listen to their leaders. They arrived in twos and threes, filling the grounds from the lower terraces.
By 10.30am, the grounds resembled a mosaic and collage rendition of a Scotland Annual Boot Fair - colourful, vibrant and expectant, all at once.
Celebrations end in disarray
Part of the crowd, mostly hard hit by inflation and most of who had found their way to Uhuru Park from Kibera, Mathare, Kariobangi, Dagoretti and Kangemi expecting the President to announce a salary raise to cushion them from the economic crunch and rising food prices.
Amid the loud protests from the disappointed crowd, President Kibaki cut short his speech and the Prisons Band led in singing the National Anthem and guests on their feet.
This quick action effectively nipped in the bud the effect of the walkout, which was being aired live on national television and beamed to homesteads across the country.
The celebrations ended in disarray as workers started chanting opposition songs to show their displeasure.
"How can this Government fail to address our wage increase yet it has the audacity to take billions of shillings from the Treasury to run a bloated Cabinet?" one employee asked and threw his hands in the air in desperation.
A section of chanting workers then mobbed Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Musalia Mudavadi, and Agriculture minister, Mr William Ruto, forcing their security detail to whisk them to the safety of their official limousines.
Unlike before, President Kibaki did not read the written English speech. He instead addressed them in Kiswahili.
"Hayo maneno mengi ambayo mmeongea juu yake yako katika hotuba hii ambayo sitasoma kwa leo (the issues you have raised are in this official speech which I will not read today)," said Kibaki as he went directly to off-the-cuff remarks.
This is the second time in many years that the Government did not announce an increase in minimum wages. Workers have demanded an increase due to high inflation that stands at 20 per cent.
They say the price of fuel and basic food had increased dramatically in the past three years, while wages had stagnated even as fears of a looming food shortage globally unfolded.
Need for wage policy
Reacting after the workers' walkout at Uhuru Park, Cotu executive member, Mr Francis Wangara, said the President could save himself from future embarrassment by setting an income and wages' policy.
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"That way, the increment will be addressed by the policy instead of waiting for the President to drop "manna" on Labour Day. We cannot entrust our daily bread to presidential decrees and if he fails to announce an increase for 10 years, Kenyans will die of stagnated salaries," Wangara said.
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