Kikuube district officials, labourers feud over pay

KIKUUBE– Kikuube district officials were recently forced to pay local labourers Shs 8 million after the intervention of resident district commissioner Amlam Tumusiime.

Last year, the district environmental department contracted 160 locals to open the boundaries for the depleted Kaziradindo wetland in Kiziranfumbi town council but officials would later decline to pay the labourers on grounds of breach of contract.

However, days ago, the angry labourers stormed RDC Tumusiime’s office asking for his help. He would lead them to the offices of Kikuube district chief administrative officer [CAO], Dorothy Ajwang to establish why the labourers were not paid despite completing some of the work in the contract.

The locals under Kaziradindo Wetland Restoration and Demarcation Group were contracted under the Watershed Project, one of the Development Response to Displacement Impacts Project [DRDIP] components funded by the World Bank.

The Watershed Project empowers poor communities in rural areas to undertake and maintain integrated watershed management activities, with the aim of increasing their incomes and protecting their natural resources.

According to Harriet Tuhaise, the secretary of Kaziradindo Wetland Restoration and Demarcation Group, they signed a contract to open the boundary and plant pillars at the wetland in July 2021. Each member of the group was to be paid Sh5, 500 per day for 20 days.  However, they worked for 10 days only as officials stopped the progress of the project.

She noted that since last year in July, the group has been demanding for the payment of their money from the district officials.

After listening to the labourers’ side of the story, CAO Ajwang would summon Samuel Mugazi, the Kikuube district focal person for DRDIP who referred the matter to the Watershed Project focal person Gertrude Nsiita, who claimed the locals breached the contract and as such they could not be paid.

However, Fred Mwesige, the councilor for Kigora Ward in Kiziranfumbi town council who led the labourers to RDC’s office refuted Nsiita’s claims, saying Nsiita was not telling the truth.

“The entire contract was for 20 days. Opening the boundary was to take 10 days while planting pillars was also to take 10 days. So these people need to be paid for the 10 days they spent opening the boundary,” Mwesige explained.

Overwhelmed with unsatisfying explanations from the district officers, Ajwang apologised to the labourers and ordered the officers responsible to process their money.

She said there was no genuine reason that would fail the officials to pay the peasant labourers.

RDC Tumusiime condemned the act of the district officials and attributed it to corruption tendencies among the officials.

https://thecooperator.news/kikuube-district-leaders-blame-poor-service-delivery-on-budget-cuts/

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