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A storm is brewing between newly-trained Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) staff, the Chinese and the government, The Nairobian can reveal.
This comes after 102 students trained on SGR operations at the Railways Training Institute accused the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) of discrimination, harassment, corruption and underpayment.
The team has also accused the Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) and the Standard Gauge Railway Oversight Authority of “failing in their mandate” after they raised the matter only to be given empty promises.
They accuse the CRBC human resource boss Navy Wang of demeaning them by saying that, “You Kenyans are very many and desperate for jobs, so this is a favour we are doing you”.
The pioneer students wrote to State House, KRC boss Atanas Maina and government ministries, protesting discrimination against Kenyans by the Chinese and especially against ladies perceived as not capable of delivering in some areas they trained in.
Months after completion of the training, the students have not been awarded certificates and have been coerced to enter into a contract with CRBC and not the government.
Operators who spoke to The Nairobian on condition of anonymity lamented that some ladies who undertook training in the transport management section were offered different contracts as that of male colleagues on claims they are a weaker sex.
They claim they were forced to undertake menial work like offloading vehicles and digging trenches during internship, even though they had various areas of specialisation. Further, the operators were forced to sign a contentious contract within limited time and warned not to reveal its details to KRC or any Kenyan government ministry or agency. After two meetings with Maina on April 5 and April 12, the KRC claimed the contract had been terminated, but the operators have been deployed without communication regarding their payments.
“After the meeting, our representatives were intimidated and verbally abused by CRBC employees. Some threats were sent through WhatsApp messages, warning us of dismissal if we pursued the matter further,” said an operator.
The contract stipulates a basic salary of between Sh24,590 and Sh30,000 depending on the operations section - Signal and Communication, Locomotive Operators and Transport Management. Also there is no provision for overtime payment and all operators are subjected to a six-month probation period to determine extension of the contract or its termination in case of prolonged illness.
The Nairobian sought response from Wang and Maina several times, but both said they were not in a position to respond. They did not honour their promise to get back to us.
