Meteorogical staff threatens to down tools – Weekly Citizen

Over 80 staff members working in six radio stations under the Radio Internet Project run by the Kenya Meteorological Department across the country are considering downing their tools in protest over poor state working conditions.

The CS, ministry of Environment and Forestry, Mr Tobiko.

The ministry of Environment and Forestry has for the last five months failed to remit the salaries for all staff in their FM stations countrywide since the month of October 2018 citing irregularities in the stations over
the number of salaried staff. Efforts to have grievances of the suffering staff members  by the KMD directors
through cabinet secretary Keriako Tobiko have proven futile as there has been no response through official communications or phone calls. The staff members who have illegally remained casuals for 8-10 years now, have vowed to go on strike and shut down the six radio stations which were put in place with the aim of helping communities get accurate weather updates, news and entertainment across the six counties through the
dissemination of climate and weather-related information. The affected radio stations include Kwale Ranet FM, Bulala Ranet FM in Budalang’i – Busia, Garbatulla Ranet FM in Isiolo, Suswa Ranet FM in Narok county, Kangema Ranet in Muranga and Nganyi Ranet FM in Luanda – Vihiga county. The staff in the stations feel neglected by their employer for having withheld their monthly pay for all those months on claims of there being ghost workers amongst them. The little the staff were told at the beginning of their troubled pay was that a number of the meteorological heads in charge of the FM stations had for a number of years been involved into embezzlement of huge sums of money they were receiving from the government on claims of improving the state of the community radio stations but to the surprise of the top directors in the meteorological department, there was nothing of the sort while some had inflated the number of their staff, thus receiving hefty sums in salaries. The workers said they had waited long enough for their employer to do a head count, which has not taken place to this day, thus they are now forced to
down their tools in protest.