Exposed: Kenyan SGR Workers Enduring Racism, Mistreatment By Chinese 'Masters'

Kenyans working at the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) have had to endure racism, poor salaries and job insecurity at the hands of the Chinese masters.

In an investigative report, The Sunday Standard reports that Kenyan staffers working at the newly-built multi-billion infrastructure are discriminated against from the smallest aspects of basic facilities to pay, with the Chinese citizens taking the best of all.

For instance, Kenyans are prohibited from using tables exclusively set aside for the Chinese as the staff cafeteria. They are also not allowed to ride in the same staff vans as well even if only one Chinese is on board, Kenyans can't use them when time for drop-offs come.

As if that is not enough, the Kenyan experts hired to get training from the Chinese with the aim of taking over the operation of the railway have been reduced to menial workers and assistants even as additional Chinese workforce is imported to run the line.

The Sunday Standard says there are 40 trained Kenyan locomotive drivers, but the closest they have gotten is sitting in the driver’s cabin. The Kenyan drivers are now outnumbered by Chinese nationals, who now stand at 50.

Kenyan maintenance technicians, who were hired with at least a diploma in civil engineering, have been assigned menial jobs after Chinese contractors took up theirs.

To make it hard for Kenyans to learn, the Chinese have also keep most of their equipment programmed in Chinese, making it impossible for Kenyans to progress beyond menial jobs, despite being recruited as technicians, engineers and drivers.

Majority of Kenyan workers at the railway pocket around Ksh40,000 a month, which is less than a quarter of what their Chinese counterparts take home for the same job.

“We are still referred to as trainees despite more than one year working in the field. The Chinese whom we work with in the same capacity only need two weeks of the same training and they are graduated to expert level,” said a source who spoke to the Paper.

To add salt on the wound, whenever a Kenyan is fired for failing to meet standards, they are replaced by Chinese workers waiting on the sidelines. To cover up the salary anormally, some workers are issued with two P9 forms to file tax returns.

“This lady received two P9s with different figures, one showed she earns more than what she actually takes home. Some employees who work at the Mombasa terminus have not been given payslips for the last one year. We only saw this anomaly after asking for the payslips,” says another source.

Apart from mistreating its employees, the trains has also adversely affected the Kenyan wildlife, so far killing two lions and five buffaloes at the Tsavo National Park.