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Aging Atwoli sends mixed signals over his retirement

Aging Atwoli sends mixed signals over his retirement
Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU)  Secretary General Francis Atwoli during a past Labour Day celeration. PHOTO/COTU-K Website

The Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU) Kenya Secretary General has maintained that he is ready to exit the body’s helm even after its board endorsed him for a sixth term.

On Tuesday, the COTU-K board had indicated Atwoli will be defending his seat during the elections slated for next year at Kisumu’s Tom Mboya Labour College.

The board members termed the 74-year-old, longest serving COTU-K secretary general as an irreplaceable leader who has been in the forefront of championing the rights of workers.

However, speaking during this year’s Labour Day celebrations at Uhuru Gardens in Nairobi, Atwoli confirmed his plans to retire from the umbrella body of workers’ unions after serving for 24 years as its secretary general.

“The board passed another resolution that they are confident in me, but I want to assure them, as much as we call ourselves brothers and sisters, this does not mean that as we enter into the new year, that it will be only Atwoli who can be able to lead Labour movement,” Atwoli said.

Free and independent

He added: “Our organisation is democratic, we are free and independent, and among our affiliates, 42 of them, they know your capabilities and your abilities to articulate issues concerning working men here and across the globe, and they will make a decision, and we will respect their decision.”

In what sounded as refuting claims that he is exiting COTU to join politics, Atwoli dismissed reports by a section of the media that he turned the body into a political outfit by using his influence to support the government, which has enslaved workers with over-taxation.

But in a blatant double-speak, the fire band trade unionist told off the opposition over assertions that Ruto has lost the support of Kenyans despite having outdone his predecessors in development.

“Some Kenyans are saying the ground here is not good. Ruto must go. Those who say the ground is bad don’t have a ground. Let’s leave him (Ruto) to finish his job,” he added

Atwoli said that COTU will be on the lookout for government officials who are exploiting workers through corruption and report them so that necessary action can be taken against them.

On workers’ welfare, the SG hit out at the Federation of Kenyan Employers (FKE) for failing to enforce the implementation of the six per cent salary increment as directed by President Ruto in the Labour Day celebrations.

Nairobi facelift

 Meanwhile, Atwoli has called for face-lifting of Nairobi city to restore its lost glory and make it orderly to give it a standard synonymous with other international cities.

“We cannot remain in a city of hawkers, a city of riders, a city of matatus. And when somebody arrives at the airport on Mombasa Road, it’s full of hawkers, depicting the picture of poverty in Kenya. This must come to an end,” Atwoli said.

He appealed to the national government to team up with the county government to maintain the capital city by also compelling landlords to paint their buildings and repair pavements.

Speaking at the same event, President William Ruto assured Kenyans that he is making the right decisions that will guarantee them a bright future despite the prevailing economic hardships.

Ruto noted that some of the decisions that he made when he assumed office two and a half years ago has elevated Kenya’s status as one of the best-performing economies in Africa.

“If I did not make the right decisions, in 2022 to stop the subsidies of fuel, flour and other things, we would not be saying today that Kenya is the sixth largest economy in Africa,” President Ruto said when he presided over the 60th Labour Day celebrations in Uhuru Gardens yesterday.

He was accompanied by Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, Cabinet Secretaries Alfred Mutua (Labour), Geoffrey Ruku (Public Service), Central Organisation for Trade Unions (COTU) Secretary General Francis Atwoli, among other leaders of workers’ unions.

Politicians, including those drawn from Nairobi, the host county, gave the event a wide berth. Noting that Kenyans have been opposed to some of his policies, the Head of State argued that the country must shun short-term measures that offer temporary relief to deep-seated problems.

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