KCB main branch - Bulluk, Juba/FILE PHOTO

Kenyan Commercial Bank national employees today staged a strike, demanding that the bank management address pay and allowance claims. 

The workers are demanding 50% pay increase.

They are also demanding that transport allowance be increased from 300 pounds to 520 pounds a month.

They said they will not return to work, unless these conditions are met.

“The action we are doing today is the last resort” said Arem Riak, chairman of KCB South Sudan Staff Association.

“We’ve resorted to this action simply because we have been exploring other heights, other avenues to solve our issues that affect us peacefully with our management but the management has blatantly failed since 2011.

“We’ve been holding series of meetings ……yesterday, we decided that the management is not serous on solving our issues that affects us, and now we have laid down out tools and we will sit down until our grievances are heard.”

However, KCB’s legal manager Ajo Noel said that bank management promises to look into their grievances within a week:

“….I was briefed by my Managing Director that they have agreed on the working modality to conclude these issues.

“He is a new person he has come in with a lot of spirits – good will to settle the issue that concerned the national staff and other foreign staff.”

KCB South Sudan was founded in 2005, following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

The Kenya-based bank has more than ten branches in South Sudan. About 300 of its employees are South Sudanese nationals.