A Parliamentary committee has ordered the Voi-Mwatate road contractor to employ youths from Taita Taveta county. Taita Taveta locals and leaders had earlier raised concerns that the Kundan Singh company had refused to employ local youths in the road construction work and was instead importing labour from outside the county. Civil society groups had also threatened to paralyse the companies operations if the company did not give jobs to the locals.
The Parliamentary Select Committee for Transport, Public Works and Housing issued the orders during their inspection of the road which is being constructed at a cost of Sh 2.3 billion. The committee chair David Were said the contractor should give the locals priority when hiring workers. "Locals should be given the first priority in any jobs that arise from this work since the money being used for construction of the road comes from their tax.This will also improve their economy here because the circulation of money in this region will improve thus boosting their livelihoods," said Were.
Were was accompanied by his vice chair, Isaac Muoki,Vihiga MP Yusuf Chanzu and Benjamin Lagat who promised the locals that they will take up the matter with the roads ministry to ensure that a larger percentage of locals are employed by the company. They also ordered that the company waters the diversion along the road to remove the dust menace that has been boggling the locals since the construction work began.
Source: The Star
No comments:
Post a Comment