Bungoma County residents demand employment from H-YOUNG Road construction company

Written by Rosemary Wachiye

Residents of Bungoma County led by their leaders stormed the busy Kanduyi – Malaba highway road near Siritanyi halting transport for hours expressing their disappointment over empty promises from a road contactor H YOUNG to offer them jobs. Led by the vice chairman of the Bungoma county council, Mr. John Nanyakha Weyusia the councilors from Bungoma County stated that H-young Company had gone against the rule of employing 80% of its workers from the region it was working in and 20% from other region. “its ironical that H-young has done the opposite of that by employing 80 % of its workers from other parts of the country and 20% from the region,” said  Mr.Nanyakha They wanted H-Young Company to open more communication channels with public when carrying out its recruitment of labour through advertising in public notice boards, local radio stations and advertisements. They also wanted the management of the construction company to open more recruitment centers  in webuye to represent Bungoma East, Mabanga to represent Bungoma central and west districts, kanduyi to represent Bungoma South, Kimaeti to represent Bumula district and Amagoro to represent Teso north and south districts. They were keen to note that incase the company fails to find skilled people among the locals then it’s when it can go ahead to recruit skilled people outside the county. They called upon the Personnel Manager, Mr. Frankline Bur to listen to their grievances but to their surprise they were not allowed to enter the gate leading to the company’s offices at Kanduyi. “Its such a bad show that leaders can come all the way to have a dialogue with the management and end up being locked out, if this disrespect is bestowed upon leaders what will be done to a common man?” asked Webuye Mayor, Mr.Ali Machani The Bungoma Municipal Mayor, Mr. Patrick Sulechi together with the other councilors did not give up hope but resorted to addressing the crowd of angry citizens at the gate who demanded the attention of the management. “we are giving H-Young up to Monday next week if they will not have agreed to recruit our people then we are going to block all the roads they are working on to stop their work and demand them to leave our county,” said Mr.Sulechi. They also complained to have invited the management of H-Young to their meeting but they did not turn up, a move that they found disrespectful to them.