How NASA, Jubilee rivalry has split giant Dock Worker Union

Dock Workers Union officials led by Secretary General Simon Sang (seated) address the press in Mombasa last week. The union is working with Jubilee while the chairman, Mohamed Sheria, is allegedly working with National Super Alliance.

Rival political factions within the Dock Workers Union (DWU) are threatening to split the 5,000-strong members as the October 17 repeat presidential election approaches.

Union leaders are split in their support for the National Super Alliance (NASA) and Jubilee Party.

Secretary General Simon Sang, who is under pressure to resign over graft allegations, escalated the divisions last Tuesday, when he swore allegiance to Jubilee and Deputy President William Ruto.

Mr Sang also threatened to sack rival faction union members, including DWU chairman Mohamed Sheria, accusing him of illegally joining forces with Kenya National Union of Teachers Secretary General Wilson Sossion to sign a memorandum of understanding with NASA on August 4 this year.

"That MoU has nothing to do with DWU. It is between Sheria as a person and NASA," read a statement from Sang.

Mr Sheria and his group have threatened to oust Sang and his allies at the union's September 30 annual general meeting.

Sang has also threatened to ensure that the union membership dismisses Sheria, who has raised audit queries against the secretary general.

Sheria and two others were suspended from the union leadership for alleged misconduct and sabotage last year, after apparently displaying leanings towards the Trade Union Congress of Kenya (TUC-Kenya) whose secretary general is Sossion and which signed the MoU with NASA.

A document from the DWU National Executive Committee suspending Sheria and his allies said in part Sheria "appeared to be leaning towards TUC (K) while he was aware that the NEC made a resolution to revert to Cotu (Central Organisation of Trade Unions) when TUC Kenya failed to protect our dismissed officials..."

Two years ago, Sang removed DWU from Cotu, which is led by Francis Atwoli, and merged it with TUC-Kenya.

Cotu fold

Several months later, Sang announced that DWU had returned to the Cotu fold.

And in November last year, Sang rallied DWU to support Jubilee following a meeting with Ruto at a time when Sossion's ties with the Jubilee regime were shaky.

Last week, Sang restated these ties.

"We made our resolve to support Jubilee Party in November 2016 when we hosted Deputy President William Samoei Ruto," he told DWU's NEC meeting in Mombasa, and added that the resolution to support Jubilee "was made out of our love for our members".

Sang claimed he agreed to work with Jubilee to enable them to address contentious issues including the planned privatisation of the port of Mombasa, which could reduce the workforce by 3,300.

The union represents workers from Kenya Ports Authority and Kenya Ferry Services.