Folks,

Without a Tale Tale or going by riddles, the majority poor in Kenya are languishing in serious poverty from lack of food, housing, clothing a result of joblessness situation.
Even the educated have scrambled. There is undercover reports of many dying from
lack of food. Food prices have gone high while the urban poor have no means let alone
access to food. The Government of Kenya does not have Welfare Program to cutter
for such critical urgent needs. Many have resorted to Molasses local brew and other
uncultured form in order to survive.

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=Y_WlP2Dk4zE

We are dumbfounded to see that Legislatures closed Parliament for recess in a hurry, turned their faces the other way to avoid public demands, and went for break to go away to enjoy themselves with big fat earnings from public taxes which makes them comfortable with enough to eat and live comfortably without care to address serious hunger situation faced by many Kenyans. This was the most urgent concern followed by the Constitution Policy Agenda. They would have considered staying a little longer taking into consideration the many lives going to be lost because of lack of food, and work-out means to tackle the situation. This is the kind of Leadership Kenyans have, a sorry state of affair one can tell how considerate these Legislatures are to the people they represent and as policy makers.

Added

Parliament is taking yet another break
02:30 From: NTVKenya
Views: 3,730

Evaluation Contract for Ministries should have relevance to Poverty Eradication and rated according to needs met and employment creation to the jobless members of public. This being the recommendation for funds requests and the Millenium Development Goals Strategic Plan. Any development realized should be seen to trickle down to ordinary Mwanainchi. The School leavers should have some form of employment in the Ministries after completion of Internships etc., Nothing of the sort was noted, except employment and Government Contracts has previously been done according to who know who, and how one is related to the ruling government.

Added

Performance contracts: Document in its current not fair
01:44 From: NTVKenya
Views: 206

It is pathetic and not logical to see President Kibaki busy spending public money and energy in financing Campaign Rally’s for his succession candidate for 2012, while the Prime Minister is busy making schedules for overseas business trips companied by groups of unscrupulous corrupt people who have corrupted the country in the past government leadership and whose activities are not for the good of Kenyans, spend huge somes of money in the financing of such trips instead of pulling these resource funds to subsidize for the poor situation in Country and also to provide incentive programs for the same. What we are seing is a dilly dallying hide and seek, avoiding to tackle situations as they stand.

Overseas Trip
Aug. 4th – Travels To Thailand On A State Visit
Aug. 6th.- Travels To Singapore On An Official Visit
Aug. 8th.- Leads Kenyan Delagation To The Olympics
Aug. 10th. Will Attend A Business Forum In Malaysia
Aug. 13th. State Visit To South Korea
He Returns To Kenya On August 15th.

August 28 Attends The Democratic Party Convention In Denver
Aug. 31 Will Lead A High Powered Trade Delagation To Washington Dc.
Sept 3 Jets Out On An Official Visit To Germany
Sept. 6 Will Open A Busines Forum In Switzerland
Sept. 9 Will Have A State Visit To Austria
September 11 Will Be In Norway For Two Days.

He Heads Back To Kenya On September 13.

All donor funds Kenya and other thirds world receive are tax payers money from the International Community for Foreign program undertaking which is part of their policy and the Citizenry have the right to DEMAND to know if their money is utilized in a responsible manner.

If physical killings of innocent Citizens by gun bullets and other forms of thuggery is regarded as treason, what about denying same Citizens basic fundamental needs like food to survive? Can we not equate this as an act of Economic Crime to the innocent Kenyans when funds are seen to be diverted for other none urgent and luxury use to the few. Is it right to treat Human Beings like animals without due regards of how and what they will eat? Leaders are therefore accountable and charged to be answerable for being Cruel and inhuman to their electorate.

Money is already trickling down to Kenya from Donor Agencies and other European Countries as well as from America while the purpose of these funds are not expressly addressed. Would it be not proper for the International Community to start calling for a halt of funds directed to Kenyan Government until things are put into perspectives and lives are saved? Government Ministries have money for other things but they dont care if lives are lost for having no food or accommodation or employment.

Is it a debatable subject that which is shelved for months and years, to be revisited when tides are good, or else to be forgotten wholesome when days and months and years have passed just to be visited at election time with a boost of handouts?

Many people now suspect and believe the Prime Minister Raila is helping the Gema Mafia and other corrupt Business Tycoons to swindle the country by design, so they can hole up the money they stole from Kenya and supervise their businesses while in company of the Prime Minister as their goodwill when in overseas trips together.

If this poverty case is anything to go by, Parliament must resume immediately to find solution for this pathetic miserable situation.

Thanks,

Judy Miriga
USA

Check this one!!!!!!!

The sorry state of the Kenyan worker

Published on May 25, 2008, 12:00 am

By Lillian Aluanga
Despite being touted as one of the country¢s worst years, 2008 has brought unexpected glad tidings for Francis Ojwang. While many Kenyans would want to forget the unprecedented wave of violence that hit the country after a disputed election, Ojwang will remember this as the year he earned the highest amount of money as a construction worker.
For the past two weeks, Ojwang, has earned Sh500 per day as a mason at a construction site near Wilson airport in Nairobi.

Loaders at work at the Mombasa port. Picture by Maarufu MohamedHe says he still cannot believe his luck.
But things have not always been this way. Ojwang¢s first job at Nyayo Highrise in 1996 earned him Sh80 per day as a handyman.
“Working in the construction industry is not easy because you are always exposed to risks. I love what I do but our working conditions are not good,” he says.
Ojwang leaves his single-roomed house in Kibera at about 6.30am and takes one hour to reach the construction site.
Depending on his financial situation, Ojwang may take a cup of tea and mandazi for breakfast. But when there is no money, he simply leaves for work on an empty stomach.
“I have two orphans to take care of and siblings to help back at home. Sometimes when my budget is spread thin, I skip breakfast and eat a plate of githeri for lunch. Sometimes, I can only afford one meal in a day,” he says.
Ojwang¢s story is replicated among thousands of Kenyan workers in lower income brackets, struggling under poor working conditions with little pay to show for their labour.
The story is the same in several parts of the country, stretching from Naivasha¢s flower farms to the vast sisal estates in Taita and Taveta districts, tea plantations in Nandi, coffee estates in central Kenya, the port of Mombasa and sugarcane farms in Western Province.
Struggle for survival
With families to feed and few alternatives in the job market, this cadre of workers continues to suffer in silence. They can only hope for a better day, when their wages and conditions will improve.
Generations of families have been born on these large farms, all getting into a cycle of poverty whose grip appears to be doing anything but loosening its hold on their future.
“What can we do? We must survive and so we take on any job that is available,” Ojwang says.
Over the years, Ojwang has worked on various construction sites in Kileleshwa, Runda, and Upperhill, earning between Sh150 and Sh350 per day.
As he speaks, Ojwangs adjusts the nylon bags tied to his feet before squeezing them into a pair of worn-out sneakers.
“We don¢t get any boots so we have to improvise to protect our feet from cement,” he says.
Then there are the rickety ladders on site.
“I saw a man fall once from the second storey of a building on Argwings Khodek road, breaking a rib and a leg,” he adds.
These are just some of the challenges Ojwang says construction workers have to contend with. Those who paint for many years, he says, also get complications in later stages.
“These paints have chemicals and no face masks are provided for the painters. It is recommended that painters drink at least a packet of milk everyday but that never happens,” he says.
Workers unions
An acting Deputy Labour Commissioner at the ministry of Labour and Human Resource Development, Mr Stephen Mbae, says the lucrative flower industry accounts for some of the largest number of workers in the agriculture sector. This in in comparison to the sugar, sisal, coffee, pyrethrum and tea sectors.
Mbae, who is in charge of Field Services, says the definition of the term ¡Kenyan worker¢ is vast. It ranges from the CEOs of major organisations, middle income earners to the lower income earners, down to the househelps, gardeners and guards, he says.
“When we talk of the Kenyan worker we sometimes forget that even that gardener, maid and herdsman in our homes is a Kenyan worker. The term does not only refer to those hired by companies,” he says.
Mbae says employers have no right to bar workers from joining a union. But he also decries the lack of awareness among workers on the unions that exist to represent them. “Section 80 of our Constitution provides for freedom of association, and therefore no employer should restrict his workers from joining a union of their choice,” he says.
To prevent the practice of too many unions representing every kind of craft, Mbae says it is common for companies to merge and form associations, through which to negotiate with workers¢ unions.
“There are cases where workers are afraid to join unions because of victimisation by their employers, but there are others where workers simply don¢t know that a union exists to represent their interests,” says the official.On this score, Mbae squarely lays blame on unions, which he says, have not been up to scratch in educating workers on their rights.
With regards to better terms of service, Mbae says unions are expected, after every two years, to negotiate for better terms for workers. Mbae cites the Sectoral Order, General Order and Collective Bargaining Agreements as tools used to determine what workers should earn, adding that the ministry always opts for what is most favourable for the employees.
A Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) refers to an agreement on terms and conditions of employment made between a trade union and an employer, group of employers or an employers¢ organisation. The Sectoral Oder refers to terms and conditions set by wages councils which are to applied to some sectors.
A General Order usually applies to all sectors even when there is no Sectoral Order or CBA. Previously, the Government would come up with a General Order revising basic minimum wages every May 1.
“If say, for instance, a General Order provides that workers be paid Sh3,000, a Sectoral Order Sh2,900 and a CBA Sh3,200, then it is the CBA which will be enforced,” Mbae says.
“But if say for example after May I the General Order revises the basic minimum wage to Sh3,300, then this supercedes the CBA and is what the workers should earn,” he says.
Although employers¢ associations entering into a Collective Bargaining Agreement with the trade unions are bound by its regulations, there has been concern over exemptions made for some companies.
Mbae says there are factors that should be considered when settling on basic minimum wage rates, such as areas where workers live and the cost of living in different places.
“It may not be fair to pay a flower worker say in Karen, Nairobi the same amount as one working on a rural farm or in Naivasha town,” he says.
According to the Regulations of Wages and Conditions of Employment Act, 2006, general labourers including cleaners, sweepers,gardeners, childrens ¡ayahs¢, house servants, day watchmen and messengers working in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu should earn a basic minimum monthly wage(exclusive of house allowance) of Sh5,195. Those in the same cadre working in all other municipalities and Mavoko, Ruiru and Limuru town councils should get Sh4,792. Workers in this cadre working in all other areas of the country should, by law, earn a basic minimum monthly wage of Sh2,771.

Labour laws
Mbae however says the categories currently stipulated by law are too few and leave out many workers. But what of inspections and measures taken by the ministry to rein in errant employers?
Mbae says the Labour ministry carries out its inspections on a routine basis and whenever it receives complaints. It is during these inspections that labour officers also take time to educate both the workers and employers on labour laws. While conceding that the ministry has not conducted any studies to compare the state of the Kenyan workers to their counterparts in Africa and the world, Mbae says it would not be fair to do so since there are different parameters by which such comparisons could be made.
Although the newly crafted Employment Act, Labour Institutions Act, Labour Relations Act, Work Injury Benefits Act and the Occupational Safety and Health Act are deemed to be ¡employee friendly¢ workers may just have to wait a little longer to see things change.
Already, the High Court has temporarily halted the operation of the new laws, after an application by the Law Society of Kenya which took issue with a section of the Work Injury Benefits Act, which deprives employers the freedom to insure employers with a licensed insurer of their choice.
Also causing murmurs of discontent among employers is the proposal to have new fathers granted paternity leave and mothers given up to three months maternity leave with full pay.

– – –
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:03:11 -0700 (PDT)
From: Judy Miriga
Subject: Fw: What are Kenyan Legislatures upto when hunger bites the poor?