By Micheal Atwakiire
Sheema: Kabwohe division casual laborers in Sheema municipality on Friday demonstrated by putting down their tools, claiming they will not work again until they are paid their salary arrears of four months.
These angry workers who walked from Kabwohe town up to the division offices to meet the town clerk , said that they were last paid in July 2019 , and that what annoys them most is being underrated by some division officers as if they are useless.
Ronald Kaweesi, one of the workers, said that “We have been working daily especially in town. But since they have failed to respect us as human beings, we agreed to put down our tools until we are paid. On Monday the division accountant told us that our money is already in the bank and that within days, we shall get paid for the four months we demand. But when we went back to his office to inquire, he told us that the division was given fake cheques and that therefore there is no money for us. He added that even the money that had come was also taken back to Kampala.”
He added that “We have been patient enough and we say that the grace period ended yesterday. What we ask ourselves is one; how comes that casual workers from other divisions like Kashozi in the same municipality have already got their salaries yet we are suffering, and how come its only ours that was returned back to Kampala?”
Boaz Twinomugisha, also one of the casual workers said “I hear government’s slogan is ‘prosperity for all’ ; now I ask myself how will it be prosperity for all yet the real government is failing to pay its own workers? My children have spent two weeks at home because of school fees , now what do they want us to do?”
Dennis Mubangizi, the town clerk Kabwohe division said that; “They should be patient with us until the money comes. This system of first sending all money to Kampala is bringing to us problems because from July up to now , we are financially unstable.”
