Former employees of Webuye Pan Paper Mills, now renamed Rai Paper Company, have pleaded with President Uhuru Kenyatta to intervene and have them paid their dues amounting to Sh640 million.
The more than 1,200 workers were laid off in 2009 when the mill was placed under receivership following mismanagement and misappropriation of the company's resources.
Mr Francis Barasa Wakhungu, their representative, said that most of the mill's former workers had been condemned to a life of poverty and suffering after losing their jobs.
Mr Barasa said that in December 2016, during the commissioning of the reopening of the paper mills in Webuye town, following its acquisition by the Rai Group of Companies, President Kenyatta promised that the government would provide funds to pay the former employees of the paper factory, but that has not been done fully.
Mr Barasa said that in August 2017, the government expedited three months’ ex-gratia payment to all the former employees at 30 percent of their basic monthly salary.
Mr Barasa, who was employed at the mill in 1989, said that when the company collapsed most of them were left idle.
"We then decided to come together and try getting help from our leaders we went to Sirisia MP John Waluke, Kanduyi MP Wafula Wamunyinyi and our MP for Webuye East Alfred Sambu but they all told us it's only President Uhuru Kenyatta who can help us,” he said.
"The first letter Uhuru responded and said something will be done but after waiting for long with no response, we wrote another letter that has never been answered to date," he said.
He said that of the 1,200 former workers, Rai Company only employed a handful who are on a monthly contract.
He said that the few like him who were taken back can afford to put a meal on the table but the others are having a hard time.
"Most of the former employees live under pathetic conditions of abject poverty, characterised by financial stress, recurrent cycles of famine and hunger, water-borne diseases especially malaria and typhoid,” he said.
He said that most of the workers who were not absorbed by the Rai Company and are finding it hard to make ends meet are now being threatened by the harsh economic conditions and the rapid spread of HIV and Aids and the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Most of these workers cannot afford a decent meal for themselves and their families, have no access to decent shelter and can neither educate their children nor meet basic clothing needs,” he said.
Mr Barasa said that following a successful public petition that was presented to the National Assembly by former Ford Kenya party nominated lawmaker Patrick Wangamati in 2016 on behalf of the 1,200 workers, the National Assembly recommended that government provides funds to clear the pending terminal payments to all the workers who were on the payroll when the mill collapsed.
"In its report, the National Assembly's Labour, Planning and Trade Committee said that the names of the 1,200 workers were well known and what was required was a computation of the dues,” he said.
Eliud Kakai, a Webuye resident, said that efforts to have the ex-workers get their dues have been hindered by a lack of political goodwill.
The mill was established in 1974 by founding president Jomo Kenyatta as a joint venture between Orient Paper, the World Bank and International Finance Corporation.
The factory by then had a production capacity of 120,000 tonnes of paper a year.
It also created employment for more than 30,000 people in the Western region.
