Hundreds of casual workers have pitched in the Lord Mayors' gardens at City Hall as the officials meet to discuss their contracts. The development comes after cleaners went up in arms last week when they received messages indicating that the authority had rejected their bid to continue cleaning the city.
The move is likely to affect over 1000 workers organized under SACCOs if they don't contract to sweep the streets, desilt drainage channels, and maintain the green in the City, a job the groups have been doing for over a decade now.
According to a source at Kampala Capital City Authority-KCCA, twenty slots were created, four from each of the five Divisions, and bids were called.
Of the four, two would come from desilting and two from sweeping and gardening. Groups from both 7 Hills and SACCOs from the five divisions submitted their bid.
But when the results were released, 15 contracts had been given to 7 Hills and only five to SACCOs, according to the source. This is what angered the casual workers prompting them to stage the protest. In 2021, 7 Hill groups emerged as volunteers before starting to demand a contract.
Last year, KCCA called for bids from companies to offer cleaning services, and groups organized under SACCOS and 7 Hills. When it became public that several cleaners' SACCOS had missed out on contracts, the cleaners started to protest, with one group after another storming KCCA demanding the renewal of their contracts.
This prompted the City managers including the KCCA technical staff, the office of the Lord Mayor, and the Minister for Kampala to organize a meeting that is currently going on. It is from this meeting that the fate of these workers shall be determined.
The cleaners had been recruited on an individual basis but she advised them that for proper management, they organize under SACCOS, which they did and have operated since 2014. The job had been ring-fenced for women, old people, single mothers, and people living with HIV AIDS.