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Job-stealing adds to labour pool woes
Friday, March 29, 2014
By KWAME ABIAH, NAIROBI
Taxi drivers are complaining that Kenyan industry’s dependence on a group of illegal immigrant workers has become so serious that it is impacting negatively on the growth of the taxi business.
A study of the Kenya Taxi Union (KTU) which is the umbrella body of taxi drivers indicates that the industry has lost about Ksh300,000 to Ksh2.6million in revenue per week as a result of the taxi drivers hiring illegal immigrants.
“The KTU’s investigation has revealed that the contribution of illegal immigrants to the business has now reached the point of cannibalisation as the taxi drivers are, in the course of the week, constantly hoovering illegal immigrants,” the union said.
A few days ago, another taxi union complained that the drivers working in the sector were losing out as a result of the illegal immigrants who do not pay any taxes.
“There are 3,000 illegal immigrants working as taxi drivers in the city and upcountry. This has led to the “poaching” of our drivers and the number of illegal immigrants in this sector has reached alarming levels,” said John Kiambui, chairman of the Kenya Taxicab Drivers’ Union (KTU).
According to the union, an illegal immigrant would usually earn between Ksh1,000 and Ksh2,000 a day.
“These people operate in the city and the upcountry but they only need to pay Ksh1,500 to Ksh1,700 a day, plus we have to provide them with accommodation.
“For the past two weeks, we have had nothing to eat and we have only been able to cover our costs from donations. We are in a very bad situation and we are here to appeal to the public to donate Ksh3,000 for each illegal immigrant we have arrested.
“The KTU does not have money to buy fuel for the vehicles which are used to police the streets,” Kiambui said.
“We don’t mind even if the illegal immigrants are arrested. We have begun to respond to all the challenges they throw at us but they ac619d1d87
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