Atwoli has his eyes on the government since devolution poses more threat to worker’s we;fare

COTU Secretary General Francis Atwoli (Photo:File/Standard)

By Stephen Makabila

Cotu Secretary General Francis Atwoli has dismissed suggestions by the recently launched Pusetu that Labour Cabinet Secretary Kazungu Kambi oversees preparations for this year’s Labour Day fete.

In an interview with The Standard on Sunday, Atwoli maintains there is no way the Government can organise a workers’ fete, and that Cotu’s plans for the day cannot be reversed.

Mr Atwoli further dismissed claims that Cotu was inferior to Pusetu, maintaining that the latter was a Government project revived to fight him.

He says his focus is to take Cotu to the next level since the devolved system of government now poses more threats to workers’ welfare. Below are excerpts from the interview.

QUESTION: What is the progress of Labour Day preparations?

ANSWER: We have made tremendous progress as far as Labour Day preparations are concerned. As has been the practice over the years, the 2014 committee started off its meetings in mid January and to date, it has held 22 meetings with another one scheduled for April 23, during which the offices of the President, County Commissioner, Governor and the Inspector General of Police among others have been invited to attend. We have secured Uhuru Park Grounds and the Governor has since written to us confirming our booking of the venue. We sent out invitations to President Uhuru Kenyatta to preside over the occasion in January. We also invited Deputy President William Ruto and Nairobi Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero, who has confirmed attendance.

All Cabinet and principal Secretaries have been invited and most have confirmed they will attend. Cotu has paid and secured 10,000 guest seats for the dais, paid for the AP band that always leads the procession and won’t be distracted from our course to ensure the day is successful.

Pusetu says Labour minister Kazungu Kambi should organise the fete, and not Cotu. Comment.

World over, no government organises Labour Day celebrations, unless Pusetu doesn’t understand what Labour Day is all about. In countries where trade unions are weak and detached, governments have been seen trying to organise something like Labour Day, where weak labour leaders are summoned to address workers at the mercy of these governments. So whose day will it be? Government is an employer, how can you let an employer organise an employees’ day?

The High Court has ordered the Labour minister to gazette Cotu’s appointee to the NSSF board. How many members does Cotu have on statutory bodies such as NSSF, NHIF, Labour Centre, SRC and National Industrial Training Authority (NITA)?

Cotu has two members at the NSSF Board of Trustees, one at NHIF Board, one at the SRC, five at NITA and three at the National Labour Board. The rule is crystal clear and the Constitution simply says the most representative workers organisation should be on these boards. Even if a newborn child asked to estimate how many unionisable employees there are in the public sector (teachers and civil servants) as a whole, surely can it even go close to 300,000? Where is Pusetu getting 700,000 members? These are individuals riding on the platform of revenge over Cotu’s stand on Tassia II.

Pusetu says it should have a lion’s share of positions on these boards because it has more members (700,000) compared to Cotu’s 160,000. Is this true?

Cotu has 41 affiliate trade unions with a membership of 1.6 million workers. I’m told Pusetu has about 259,000 members, I have no idea from where. This is because looking at individual pay slips of our members, workers are paying a membership fee of Sh100 to Cotu.

Ask Pusetu if indeed they have even a single worker paying union dues to it as a member? They call themselves a public service federation yet they want to poke their noses all over including at the NSSF, where no single teacher or civil servant pays his or her money.

They should keep off these bodies and stop being used by government to cause despondency and confusion in union leadership.

You have indicated several times that Pusetu is a project of Government being used to fight Cotu. Any evidence to back your claims?

Pusetu was started some times last year and soon after its registration, it went under what I would call some form of receivership. Why the launch now? Is it a coincident that it comes when the issues of Tassia II and NSSF are hot on the doorsteps of the Cabinet Secretary for Labour? You saw how in his address at the launch, Labour CS spent a whole hour attacking Atwoli and Cotu as if the launch was meant to tell the country how Atwoli and Cotu will be fought?

What is your take on claims by Pusetu that you have frustrated Kenya’s ratification of ILO Convention 87 of 1948?

It has never been Atwoli’s role to ratify any convention and this is where these individuals don’t understand the individual role of tripartite partners cum social partners. Where was I in 1948? Where has the Kenya government been since then to ratify the convention? We, as Cotu, can lobby government as we have always done, but government has always insisted that this is already in our local statutes, including the Constitution, hence its purpose is already served.

In your view, what is the future of unionism in Kenya?

The challenges the trade union movement is facing today are normal. It will emerge stronger than ever. These are challenges even our predecessors like Tom Mboya faced prior to the formation of Cotu in 1965.

We must remain focused and determined to serve our members without being distracted nor demoralised into doing so. Engaging Pusetu time and again will be like a candidate who spends 99 per cent of his time identifying the questions to answer in an exam only to realise he has 1 per cent time left to really put his answers down.

What agenda do you have for Cotu in the coming years and second the African continent following your recent election as President of African Trade Unions?

For the last one year or so, our main agenda has been to build trade union leadership capacity as well as train our rank-and-file members with a view to placing them into a strategic position to effectively engage their employers in all manner of workplace issues.

At least 300 members have been trained and equipped with the necessary skills to represent fellow workers at the Industrial Court based on their paralegal trainings.

Equally, my pre-occupation has been how to take Cotu to the next level amid a devolved system of government that now poses a threat to the workers’ interests.