EAC staff want better conditions

Employees of the East African Community (EAC) and its institutions have complained about their working conditions, saying they are not favourable for their long-term social security.

They told Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who ended his two-day visit to EAC headquarters yesterday, that they are specifically not happy with the contract terms which do not guarantee them of pension.

Speaking on behalf of the 200-plus employees of the Arusha-based EAC secretariat and its organs, the Director of  Human Resource and Administration Joseph Ochwada said the permanent staff only served on two contract terms and end up at the end of their tenure without pension.

He further told the Kenyan leader, who visited the EAC headquarters in his capacity as chair of EAC Heads of State Summit, that due to the skewed scheme some of the employees of the Community have had no salary increment for the last six years.

He added that the contract terms of employment adopted by the Community recently limited their tenure of working period for the majority of staff there to only two five year each terms of a maximum 10 years.

“At the end of their tour of duty at EAC, many of them cannot be absorbed into other areas in their respective countries,” Mr Ochwada told Mr Kenyatta during a meeting between the visiting head of state and the employees.

EAC, its organs and institutions under it have close to 300 employees, many of them professionals. Majority of them are working in Arusha, the EAC headquarters but others are serving with the Community institutions located in other partner states.

These are Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC) based in Kisumu, Kenya, Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization (LVFO) located at Jinja, Uganda, Inter University Council of East Africa (IUCEA), East African Development Bank (EADB) and Civil Aviation Safety and Security Oversight Agency (Cassoa).

The Citizen

UM– USEKE.RW