In Summary;
- Dual carriage extension cert (doc)
- Illegal termination of Liaison / HR officer (doc)
- Defective Murram lease (doc)
- KRA ductions not remitted
- Drainage Cashcow
- No house allowance
- Plateless automobiles
- Casuals underpaid
The Dual carriage construction tender was advertised in 2018 vide tender no. BGM/CNTY/OT/RPW/184/2018-19 with tender name; Kanduyi-Sang’alo Junction Dual carriage way Road. It was awarded to ZHONGEI ENGINEERING GROUP LTD at a cost of Kshs. 1,382,442,975.76. The contract commencement date being 12 July 2019, the contract period is 24 months and its due completion was 12 July 2021
Due to financial constraints the project couldn’t be completed on time and therefore on 20 May 2021 it was quietly extended to 20 May 2022 (see document below)
The CR12 indicates the directors as follows;
- Pong Yankum – Director
- Dong Lonpei – Director
- Chieng Xiayu – Director
- Patrick Wangalwa Oundo – Local representative
Illegal and irregular termination of the Liaison / Human Resource officer
The HR officer Mr. Simon Mutambo was recommended by the County Government as a liaison officer taking care of the County of Bungoma interests. He was later hired as a HR officer whose main roles were Human Resource Management and Public Relations… While at it as the HR his ToR included; Representing the Company in court in case of disputes involving employees, road accidents, insurance, NHIF, NSSF and other domestic employee affairs.
Mutambo being the eyes of Bungoma was supposed to work with the contractor as long as the project is ongoing
He earned a peanut-salary of 20,000/= per month with no further allowances
On 2 August 2021 Mutambo received a WhatsApp text bearing his termination letter dated 4 July 2021
- The dismissal letter is full of errors starting with wrong quoting of the project name (KANDUI instead of KANDUYI)
- No one-month notice
- A peanut Kshs. 93,000/= is what the government is preparing to pay as his benefits
- While his former colleagues have been paid, his July salary has been withheld
A defective Murram lease agreement dupes land owner;
On 23 November 2019 ZHONGEI ENGINEERING GROUP LTD entered a defective agreement with Mzee Patrick Wakhungu a land owner for parcel No. S/EAST/KANDUYI/BUKUSU/23441 who was duped into believing that the land was not suitable for any other use and therefore they’d harvest the Murram at a cost Kshs. 190,000/= being a once-time payment.
- The extraction was limitless in time… The contract did not mention when it will end therefore allowing the contractor to exploit the old man.
- #iKUWEiKUWE has learnt that Mzee Wakhungu was duped by the contractor into losing about Kshs. 600,000/= per acre which is the standard price for such an engagement
- Having signed a contract for a ONE acre of land, the contractor has gone ahead to extract material from much more than he bargained for on the 12-acre piece of land owned by mzee on the pretext that they haven’t finished the road while not adding mzee a single coin.
- Excavation period is not indicated giving the Chinese limitless time to use the land way after the road is done as long as the Chinese still feels like extracting murram.
Read;
- https://ikuweikuwe.com/2021/04/12/1-4b-dual-carriageway-contractor-self-sabotaging-blames-county-government-and-kplc-for-delays-in-completion-as-construction-is-halted-report/
- https://ikuweikuwe.com/2021/01/12/bungoma-dual-carriageway-taking-shape-but/
Drainage Cashcow;
The extensive drainage from the dual carriage to river Khalaba has been a cash cow as companies are contracted each year to redo (and complete) what the other company previously did but still none of the companies has ever done the job to completion as per the BQ… all have been paid in full.
- KCC – Khalaba river drainage has cause grave danger to residents as the current contractor is doing a stone-pitched drainage on one side of the road unfairly infringing on the land on the left side going down as they leave the side bordering Mama Heris land (KCC) untouched. This has caused a public outcry by land owners on the left side who have experienced falling power lines, damaged sewer and water lines as a result. Two weeks ago a power line fell due to exposure occasioned by the expansion of the drainage weakening the base of poles. The live poles fell on houses risking the lives of residents. They are now petitioning the government to ensure a CONCRETE drainage is done and the road is expanded on KCC side as well.
- The rest of the drainages have faced the same fate; Different contractors are paid fully for incomplete work
- The construction of the dual-river drainages is therefore done without consulting stakeholders; KPLC, NZOWASCO and residents demanded by law.
WATCH KCC – Khalaba River Road LIVESTREAM: https://www.facebook.com/109364714040303/videos/205091214957681/
Casuals underpaid;
Casual are paid as follows;
- Normal working days 8am-5pm: Kshs. 51 per hours
- Saturday; Half day (8-12noon)- 51per hour
- 12noon onwards; Multiply each hour (Kshs. 51) by 1.5
- Sunday; multiply by 2 (51×2) per hour
KRA deductions not remitted;
My rat in the company informs that for 5 months from Dec to April the company did not remit taxes for about 15 engineering members of staff… When things became hot cash ranging from Kshs. 9,000 – 25,000/= was given to employees to remit for themselves
No house allowance;
The resident engineer’s staff including the inspector and lab attendants have never received house allowances despite the fact that it’s budgeted for as part of the BQ
Plateless automobiles;
The dual carriage machines have caused numerous accidents on and off the dual but the company never takes responsibility because a good number of them are plateless making it difficult to identify the culprit.
#iKUWEiKUWE Corner
- A County govt Liaison officer to the project cannot be fired by a Chinese but assuming they want to fire him as a HR officer, they ought to give a one month notice and adhere to their contract signed in March 2019. A job I believe he was given to silence him.
- A whole HR cum liaison officer earning 20,000 only and is dismissed without following due process.
- The statement; “The lease term of this lease shall be from the time the lessee signs the agreement with the land owner upto until he depletes the extraction if the agreed material” … at Kshs. 190,000 this is thuggery in broad daylight.
