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Ethnic Animosity Enters the Work
Place
Business Daily (Nairobi)
15 February 2008
Jim Onyango
The post-election violence which has snowballed into ethnic
animosity has crept into offices and mid sized firms. Employers
say their workers do not trust each other, translating into lower
productivity.
What begun as violence triggered by the election results has
quickly turned into a ethnic hatred which now threatens to eat
into the fine fabric of the work place.
So bad is the situation that managers and company owners are
having it difficult to rally around employees to perform.
Mr George Wainaina, the managing director of Aster Traders Limited,
a transportation firm, recently brought the whole picture to the
fore when he narrated how some of his employees had asked him to
sack the tea girl because she was from another community.
"Some of my employees approached me to say the tea girl could
poison us" said Mr Wainaina. "But she has been my best employee
for the last six years, I cannot stay a day without sipping tea
prepared by her."
Mr Wainaina is in a dilemma - fire the tea girl or retain her and
risk tension in the office.
So bad is the situation that workers in various firms have taken
to ethnic grouping in different corners to discuss the folding
political situation in the country.
"The decay is so big. It will take us along time to realise
ourselves as one nation" said David Githere, an official of the
Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
PK Patel, the owner of Nakuru based Njoro Canning Factory, says he
has not been able to attract labourers.
"I normally have 400 workers, now I can barely employ 200. Most of
them have run away, they don't trust each other so they cannot
work together" said Patel.
Patel's testimony goes to show how bad the post-election crisis -
now running into tribal hatred - is quickly turning Kenya's work
force upside down.
Disruption to the smooth flow of work is likely to set in as
working colleagues shun contact with those who don't belong to
their communities.
Already, several companies have suffered low productivity
following the late resumption of duty when most workers could not
travel to their duty stations because of transport problems or
illegal road blocks by hooligans.
Some CEOs we interviewed said they were caught between a rock and
a hard place as they have had to reshuffle their work force to
ensure continuity in production.
"We have had to hire professional counsellors to help our workers
cope with the ethnic tension in the our factory" said a CEO of a
major plastic manufacturing firm who requested not to be named.
The Chamber of commerce says the ethnic tension in most firms may
take long to heal and this could translate into low productivity.
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