Listen to This Article Enhance your reading experience by listening to this article.

Members of the Muthaiga Golf Club Caddies network have decried lack of appreciation during and prior to the Magical Kenya Open-DB European Tour Championships which concluded last Sunday.

Complaints ranging from lack of meals, underpayment and lack of facilitation of equipment took centre stage yesterday even as Kenya Open Golf Limited and Muthaiga Golf  Club largely remained non- committal on the issue.

The members are accusing the Club management and tournament office for alleged apathy especially towards a bigger section of the caddies.

Through their Chairman Peter Ngatia, the caddies have demanded better treatment from Kenya Open Golf Limited who ran the Championship in Nairobi on March 3-6.

“There were glaring disparities in pay which we considered unfair. There was a lot of shortchanging for caddies, especially the home club. The course was closed for maintenance between February 26 and March 2 which meant we did not earn anything from the club,” he stated.

About payment, Ngatia said it was already clear that caddies for professionals would be earning Shs 6,000 per day for the whole day’s work for all rounds the players played.

“Apart from that, there was an agreement that on winning, caddies would pocket anything between 5 and ten percent. However, the bone of contention is that there was a rounded figure of Shs 2,800 daily for the rest of us who incidentally did different jobs,” stated Ngatia who is also the Kenya National Caddies Association Coordinator.

Ngatia believes that there should be segmentation in roles vis-a-vis pay so that workers do not feel cheated.