Atwoli petitions Uhuru over non-payment of workers at flower firm

Francis Atwoli  Photo: Courtesy

By LUKE ANAMI

The workers’ umbrella body has petitioned President Uhuru Kenyata over failure by a flower company to pay its workers for over a year now.

In a letter addressed to the President, the Central Organisation of Trade Unions wants Karuturi Flower Farm to pay its workers’ dues for the past one year.

“We wish to bring to your attention the serious and appalling situation currently facing the over 3,000 workers at the Karuturi Flower Farm, Naivasha, in which the management of the farm has, and without any due regard to the law, deliberately continued to perpetuate non-payment of wages against the workers,” Francis Atwoli, Cotu’s secretary general, said in a letter addressed to the President Kenyatta.

He said efforts by Cotu and its affiliate, the Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union, to have the workers paid has been futile.

Atwoli cited letters his office has written but of which the flower firm has failed to respond to.

Efforts to get the management of Karuturi to reply to the allegations proved futile as the telephone numbers of the managers went unanswered. Neither the MD of Karuturi Ram Krishna nor the General Manager Ms Rosebell Nyamu picked their phones when The Standard contacted them.

Atwoli blamed the Cabinet Secretary Labour, Social Security and Services Kazungu Kambi for failing to respond to the situation despite reminders from Cotu.