Chinese and Kenyan workers at Madaraka Express build bridges

Inland Container Depot in Embakasi. Authorities are investigating how a house help was used to ship the consignment of 44 forty-foot containers of premium cigarettes and later abandoned at the depot. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Every employee who handles train operations, he added, has to undergo drills for at least four months to ensure they are fit for work.

  • Madaraka Express staff and their Chinese bosses will have a retreat at Ngong Hills, in a trip Mr Kinyanjui said was an outing “just to ensure that we get to understand each other

  • Complaints about non-issuance of payslips were also listed by Kenyan staff, and Ms Mwihaki said changes are being done to shift from manual issuance of payslips.

The widely circulated photo showing uniformed Kenyans lying down before a Chinese man inside the standard gauge railway premises is not depicting a punishment scene, but an exercise session, a senior official said on Saturday.

Mr Harrison Kinyanjui, an assistant manager for passenger services at Madaraka Express, said the photographed men were doing press-ups as part of a drill at the Syokimau station.

“You cannot be told to lie down and then you are caned. A father of someone? And then men, 20-plus men, people’s fathers, you lie down to be caned? People with beards, how? Don’t you think that is pure exaggeration?” he asked.

Every employee who handles train operations, he added, has to undergo drills for at least four months to ensure they are fit for work.

“You cannot be train crew and yet you’re not maintaining your body shape,” Mr Kinyanjui said.

DRILLS

“You have to do these drills and everything to ensure that if it is tidying up the luggage rack, you are fit, your body is not strained. It gives us an advantage to work softly and smoothly,” he added.

He also admitted that smoking among the Chinese staff in-charge of railway operations is a problem Kenyans are dealing with because, “This thing is their culture; it is not that they intend to offend”.

“In the trains, they are now adapting into looking for other ways to relax other than smoking. We could be demanding a lot that may put the culture away from them; but we are harmonising,” said Mr Kinyanjui.

He is one of the individuals who spoke with the Sunday Nation on Saturday as part of the China Road and Bridge Corporation’s fightback against media reports about unfair practises against Kenyan staff.

Other Kenyans who discussed the situation are Ms Mary Mwihaki, who works in the human resources office and Mr Robert Ng’eno, one of the team leaders in the cargo transport department.

Adding his voice in the rebuttal was Mr Dai Yunjie, the deputy general manager of the standard gauge railway operations, who explained that the concept of strict adherence to time is one of the cultural differences between Kenyans and the Chinese that are yet to be aligned fully.

SHAKE UP

During the interviews, it emerged that the recent media reports about a difficult working environment had led to a shake-up of various operations of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR).

Ms Mwihaki said that besides administrators holding meetings with staff, management changes had been done.

“There have been changes in some departments; like you’ll find some departments where the managers or supervisors were changed or reshuffled,” she said.

Mr Dai added that the corporation had singled out 22 “detailed measures” that it will take, adding that they had been submitted to the Kenya Railways Corporation.

“The company is planning to carry out activities themed on integration of Kenyan and Chinese employees,” he said.

On Sunday, Madaraka Express staff and their Chinese bosses will have a retreat at Ngong Hills, in a trip Mr Kinyanjui said was an outing “just to ensure that we get to understand each other”.

“Both sides have to bend. We have to bend on our part and they have to bend so that we can harmonise,” he said.

SHOCKING PRACTICES

In recent media reports, some of the shocking practices exposed included the underworking of Kenyan staff, where highly qualified personnel have been assigned minor roles.

The Kenyan staff who spoke with the Sunday Nation said the disgruntlement may have come out of the fact that at the time when Kenyans are hired by SGR, they are considered to be in one level, because they are given jobs after qualifying from the Railway Training Institute.

“When you are joining us, we are not looking at what you came with. We take what you came with from Railway Training Institute,” said Ms Mwihaki.

“Nobody had done it as a degree. There is no railway training here in Kenya, so everybody began equal. As we progressed, the company has its own system of promotion, whereby they check your performance,” added Mr Kinjanjui. Mr Dai said the disgruntlement among some staff has made the train operator to consider a way of promoting Kenyans.

MANAGEMENT LEVEL

“In the future, the company is planning to gradually promote Kenyan employees from more professions to high or middle-level management and core positions,” he said.

“The railway operation has strict requirements on the technical business ability and safety awareness of the technical employees. According to the requirements and qualifications, the key positions must be trained in the training period of one to three years,” he added.

Kenyans working with the SGR had also complained of operational difficulties because there were notices and operational items written in Chinese.

Mr Dai admitted that not all material had been translated.

“The translation from Chinese to English is being continuously carried out since the inauguration of the railway. Because of the quantity and difficulty of translating professional documents, it still needs a while to finish all the translation,” he said.

“The company is planning to invest more manpower and time on the translation and finish it at the end of 2018.”

PAYSLIPS

Complaints about non-issuance of payslips were also listed by Kenyan staff, and Ms Mwihaki said changes are being done to shift from manual issuance of payslips.

“The company will implement a payroll system to allow staff access their payslips on email from wherever they are,” she said.

The report about mistreatment of Kenyan staff had drawn widespread fury, with National Assembly summoning, among others, Kenya Railways Managing Director Atanas Maina and Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia to shed light on the matter.

Mr Macharia, while appearing before the assembly’s committee on Transport on Tuesday, painted a rosy picture of the operations, and he admitted that it is only until 2027 that Chinese workers will leave. The staff who spoke on Saturday did not paint a very rosy picture, admitting that they could do with a little ironing of teething issues.

“We have a few challenges here and there but, as a department, we are trying our best. Because this railway is a new thing altogether, we have the Chinese with the knowledge and skills they have to transfer to us,” said Mr Ng’eno, the team leader in the cargo department. He added that to fight the language barrier, officials like him use the WeChat app that instantly translates messages.

PUNISHED

They were, however, categorical that no one has ever been punished by flogging, saying there was a detailed disciplinary mechanism listed in staff contracts. Mr Dai expounded on the “cultural differences” cited in a newspaper advertisement on Wednesday as one of the reasons behind the misunderstanding.

“For Chinese staff, it has become a habit to use their spare time to beautify the environment of the station. However, due to Sino-Africa cultures differences, local staff think that this is something outside the scope of work,” he said.