Western province

RUBAVU-About200 employees formerly working on Bazireti Nyabirezi road on Monday this week stormed Nyakiriba sector offices over non payment of three months wages.

The road workers mostly area residents allegedly staged a peaceful demonstration in order to attract attention of the local authorities.

The protesters were reportedly hired by Denny Uwimana an investor who won the tender to construct a road from Bazireti to Nyabirezi, a contract he has since lost.

"We worked for three months without payment. For the three months we abandoned other activities and concentrated on the road construction with the hope that the money would help us meet our needs such as buying food and paying school fees for our children but we ended up getting nothing,” said Immanuel Hakizimana one of the protestors.

He also complained that their households were destined to starve because their work on the road affected their farming activities.

"I personally expected over Frw 300,000 and had budgeted for it to help me through this season. How will my family survive without food when the money I worked for is withheld all this time?” he asked

 He claimed that he and his other colleagues had accepted to work for the investor with trust that the employer had passed through the right procedures to win the tender. Such trust he said, made them persevere on promises.

He said that Uwimana kept assuring them of payment until they realized it was a hoax.

The protestors appealed to local authorities to prevail on Uwimana to pay them.

Sought for a comment, Nyakiriba sector coordinator Claris Imanizabayo said authorities were aware of the problem and were doing ‘every thing possible to solve it’

"We have heard about the problem and forwarded it to the district leadership to address it. Together, we shall do our best to prevail on the investor [Uwimana] to pay the 200 workers”.

According to Imanizabayo, the tender was allegedly withdrawn from Uwimana and handed over to prisoners serving under community work [TIJ] after Uwimana’s work was found wanting.

Uwimana could not be reached for comment by press time, but his co-worker who asked not to be named acknowledged the debts and explained that the worker’s wages accumulated because PAFOR, a project which had awarded them the tender had not paid them full amount agreed.      

 
Ends