KCCA commits to pay casual workers salary arrears

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Kampala Capital City Authority-KCCA has said that they will pay all their casual workers who have gone without pay since mid-September 2021.

Over 2,500 casual workers comprised of street cleaners, drainage desilters, and garbage loaders have not been paid despite continuous demand and petition to the Authority.

Speaking at the award ceremony of the KCCA Weyonje Challenge, the Director Public Health and Environment, Dr. Daniel Okello said the Authority is making arrangements to pay causal workers as soon as they can. He did not explain when the payment shall come in and what has caused the delay which workers have described as unusual since their salaries always come latest, one month after.

Dr. Okello says the Authority is not deliberately delaying the workers payment to offend them, but are held by uncontrollable circumstances.

But the workers who are irked by the long waiting are dissatisfied with the promise. Some of them including supervisors says they thought the Authority would pay them yesterday.

Sulaiman Kayongo, a garbage loader from Kawempe says their supervisors have been promising week after week but to no avail. Kayongo is a leader of loaders and says that three of his colleagues are at the verge of being evicted from their houses for failure to clear rent bills.

He expressed dismay that on top of earning peanuts, their money has taken more than two months to reach their accounts and no clear explanation has been offered. He has appealed to KCCA to pay them and also consider increasing their pay. They currently earn 150,000 Shillings a month.

Sarah Nakimuki, a street sweeper at Nabweru road says she was running a small business selling snacks to complement her earnings from KCCA, but has since lost the business. The increased prices in commodities like cooking oil and flour have pushed her out of business leaving her dependent on her job with KCCA. But since she has not been paid, she’s struggling to look after her family of five, she says.

George Atuhairwe who works with KCCA in the drainage department as a desilter says he is losing hope that they will be paid soon. Atuhairwe says such a delay in payment has never happened to them and wondered why it has happened this time round.

Fears emerged among KCCA casual workers when they were not paid and yet there was another group, Seven Hills on the streets doing the same job, some of whom were given allowances by KCCA. Currently, no group has been contracted to clean the city but both KCCA workers organized under SACCOs and Seven Hills have continued to work.

Atuhairwe says it is as though KCCA wants to frustrate them such that they can quit and pave way for them (KCCA) to contract another company to do the job. Many KCCA casual workers were hired as individuals before the former KCCA Executive Director Jennifer Musisi asked them to form SACCOs under which to operate. Atuhairwe says KCCA should pay their salary arrears and also streamline their operations.

Paul Mugambe, the Mayor Nakawa division says KCCA should move fast to pay casual workers their salaries especially at such a time when prices of household necessities are going high.

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