Sammy Karuga Gachuhi - Deputy General Manager
Africa Star Railways Operations Company Limited (Afristar), the firm that manages SGR trains in under focus once again for mistreating staff and flouting labour laws.
Cnyakundi.com has learnt that some of the staff who were given leave due to the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, have not been called back to work.
“We've not gone back to work since March last year when the first Covid-19 case was registered in Kenya. There is no official communication from the management on work resumption”, said the source.
The long stay at home has got some suffering and worried.
“Our families are suffering we are not able to pay rent, buy food and send our children to school. Please let me remain anonymous”, the source added.
Has the deputy general manager for Afristar Mr Sammy Gachuhi replaced the Kenyan employees with Chinese ones?
This is more likely the case as evidence from the past has shown.
Afristar staff have often complained about discrimination, nepotism and racism.
In 2018, such complaints were covered by local media. This opened a can of worms, later revealing a tussle between the management and the worker’s union which saw the govt of Kenya side with the oppressors.
This site has all the issues documented as below: Bane of Afristar: Were SGR staff complaints resolved? Explosive: New SGR staff and contract scandal ‘Afristar is like a concentration camp’ – staff member says SGR Greed: Afristar staff complain of mistreatment The over one year of silence from Afristar is not a way to treat staff. It is like they have all been sacked and a new shipment of half-trained Chinese have taken over, we are investigating this. We have already seen some documents from the past.
Since SGR has resumed operations in all departments, who is doing the job of those who have stayed home for a year?
Mr Gachuhi should be professional and communicate with his staff who are languishing at home. False hope of retaining the job bites more than losing it.