Over four hundred workers on Wednesday, November 12, took to the streets to demonstrate against what they describe as brutal working conditions at the Kitale-Morpus road project site.
According to the workers, their grievances include physical assault by supervisors, arbitrary dismissals, inadequate wages, and unsafe working environments that violate basic labor standards.
The workers, who are part of a major infrastructure project connecting Lamu to South Sudan, accused their employer of flagrant disregard for constitutional protections and workers’ rights.
“I’m protesting today because our employer is using unconstitutional ways to dismiss people from work. I’m here because of assault. There are tons of insults. So, today I demonstrate because there is nowhere in the Kenyan Constitution that allows an employer to fire someone without a particular reason,” one aggrieved worker stated during the demonstration.
The protesters painted a grim picture of daily life at the construction site, where they claim supervisors routinely assault them physically and verbally. Workers reported being terminated for minor mistakes or sometimes without any justification whatsoever.
Beyond the allegations of mistreatment, the employees highlighted serious safety concerns at the project site. They lamented the absence of clean drinking water for workers and described generally poor working conditions that put their health and safety at risk.
“We lack clean drinking water as workers, there is no safety for workers, the working conditions are poor, we want better working conditions,” another protester explained.
The workers also expressed frustration over what they termed inadequate compensation, particularly given the scale and importance of the infrastructure project they are helping to build.
In a direct appeal to government authorities, the demonstrators called upon Cabinet Secretary for Labour and Social Protection Alfred Mutua to intervene urgently in the matter.
“This is a major project, an A1 Road, all the way from Lamu to South Sudan. I plead with CS for Labour and Social Protection, Alfred Mutua to look into this,” one worker pleaded.
This protest adds to a growing wave of labor unrest across various sectors in Kenya. Just days earlier, on November 6, workers at a textile manufacturing company in Athi River staged demonstrations over similar complaints of worker mistreatment and poor working conditions.
The Athi River incident, which involved the Tailors and Textile Workers Union, descended into chaos requiring police intervention. Workers at that facility raised concerns about the mistreatment of female employees on night shifts, dismissal of pregnant workers, and denial of their right to form a union.
“Pregnant women get fired anyhow. Women on night shifts come in from 6:00 pm to 11:00 am the next day, and the pay is very little,” one female worker lamented.
