Leaders should dialogue, Atwoli says boycott will bring losses

The Secretary General of the Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) Francis Atwoli has given his opinion of the ongoing selected products boycott by National Super Alliance (NASA) leaders and supporters.

Atwoli gave a meeting on Tuesday, November 7 said the boycott is going to cost many Kenyans their jobs. NASA asked supporters to stop using product or services from Safaricom, Bidco Oil Refinaries and Brookside Dairies.

The deadline for using those products is scheduled for November 10.

Atwoli said that knowing NASA has a massive following, the boycott will affect workers and the firms that provide employment.

He said dialogue should be given a chance but said he will not talk to NASA leaders as he is tired of politics. He said that the leaders who are against dialogue are doing so for self-interests and not for the good of the country.

“I started warning leaders from March up until August 7 that if they did anything funny then it would be an uphill task to go back to where we were,” he said.

Atwoli had earlier asked NASA to consider calling the boycott on, warning that the move would hurt workers. According to Cotu’s economic and research department findings, the boycott may leave Kenya with loses of between 70,000 and 100,000 jobs.

The meeting was attended by National Hospital Insurance Fund and COTU officials.