Karuturi flower firm workers now sent on leave

Karuturi flower firm workers during a protest in Naivasha, last week, to demand unpaid salaries. [Photo: File/Standard]

By Antony Gitonga

Naivasha, Kenya: More than 3,000 workers from troubled Karuturi flower firm in Naivasha have been sent on a one-week compulsory leave as the receiver managers take over.

The workers were paid Sh12,000 each ending months of suffering and were directed to report back to work after a week.

Ferdinand Juma of Kenya Plantations and Agricultural Workers Union said the receiver managers had paid part of November and December salaries.

The unionist said that they would meet the new managers next week so that they can determine the way forward.

Juma said workers had suffered for many days adding that the payment had boosted many families since majority have school-going children.

Meanwhile, former Naivasha MP John Mututho has questioned the move to place Karuturi under receivership.

This came as the new receiver managers took over the firm, which is the largest rose producer in the world after obtaining a court order.

Mututho said that past experiences had proved that very few companies recovered after receiver managers take over.

“Of all the companies that were put under receiver managers, only a few like Uchumi have recovered and made profit,” he said.

Mututho, who is now anti-drugs agency chairman, noted that the move would adversely affect the country’s foreign exchange.

He noted that at its prime, the firm produced a million roses a day, adding that the Government should have injected funds into the firm and appointed managers to address the crisis.

Electricity and water

“The country’s flower production in the European market will drop and thus affect foreign exchange,” he said in Naivasha over the weekend.

Mututho said that residents of Naivasha were already feeling the effects of the move as the firm employed over 3,000 workers.

“The economy of Naivasha and Nakuru counties has been affected by the crisis in the flower firm and it was wrong to put it under receiver managers,” he said.

CFC bank took over the running of the firm after it failed to repay Sh400 milion loan. In the last five months workers, had gone without salaries while electricity and water were disconnected.