As a way of attempting to reduce capital flight, in 2015 the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) decided to form its construction unit.
One of the projects the construction started with was the construction of Kitala-Gerenge road. The project links Gerenge fishing site to Entebbe mainland and Pearl Marina, a futuristic lakeside city. However, the project has not been moving on well due to land problems since owners had refused to give UNRA the right of the way while others are still asking for a lot of money.
Currently, the project stands at 60 percent completion but regardless of land problems, UNRA currently faces another challenge of road workers who have decided to lay down tools since they have spent almost five months without pay. There are close to 100 temporary workers working on the Kitala-Gerenge road project who claim that they have not been paid.
According to UNRA spokesperson Allan Ssempebwa, currently the authority is facing a lot of financial challenges following budget cuts brought by Covid-19. The project has always been funded by the government directly but due to Covid-19, the government has been facing a lot of financial challenges thus also affecting UNRA’s financial flow.
In such a cycle, the Kitala-Gerenge road project was among those UNRA projects that were derailed thus affecting the workers’ welfare and payments to suppliers.
In one of the recent interviews Ssempebwa had with the Observers, he said, “As a body, we subscribe to ensuring that the welfare of our workers is on top. And what we have done is that our chief accountant is following up on all the claims of non-payment that have been made by the workers. Last week, the process of harmonizing the arrears, to begin payment henceforth, started.”
He also promised that they are working around the clock to pay the outstanding wages of the affected workers.
Workers include mainly the unskilled, who dig or carry cement, murram, stones and push wheelbarrows and those building tranches.
Workers speak out
Apart from their salaries, workers are also not happy with the way they are treated by UNRA. They say the authority does not respect their contract. They revealed that in their initial contracts back in 2018, lunch was part of the package however since last year in November, they have not received any lunch allowance. A meal was valued at Shs 4,500 each day. In total, one worker is owed about Shs 1,485,000 as a lunch allowance.
Workers claim that they work the whole day without a single meal, but a single bottle of water. They claim that someone can spend the entire day carrying 100kgs of heavy culverts without a meal. They also allude to that where they work from they have no onsite mobile toilets therefore, they often raid the bushes to ease themselves because there are no onsite mobile toilets.
When it comes to safety, workers complain that for over 1 and a half years they have not had elements, safety boots, hand gloves or helmets. Yet they lay molten asphalt (tarmac), boiled at 180 degrees Celicious having no safety gadgets such as footwear or hand protection. In case of an accident, workers said they don’t get First Aid.
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