An irate mob in Nairobi engaged police in running battles on Monday morning, March 28, blocking off the busy Likoni Road.
In a video seen by Kenyans.co.ke, the police fired tear gas canisters in the air to disperse the rowdy youth and de-escalate the situation.
The road was littered with several objects including stones which the youth hurled at incoming cars.
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Witnesses at the scene intimated that the youth were disgruntled employees from a local company who had taken to the streets to protest plans to retrench over 600 workers after the court approved the company's redundancy plan.
The ruling was issued after some workers filed a petition at the Employment and Labour Relations Court and the Central Organisation of Trade Union (COTU) citing that they were not informed prior of the redundancy plans.
According to court documents, the company argued that retrenching the employees was necessary for it to stay afloat.
"The redundancy process has been necessitated by the fact that the board of directors of the company made a decision to separate the business of furniture and fabrication division (under engineering division) from the plastic division," one of the directors of the company stated.
He further stated that they were affected by the government's ban on the manufacture of disposable plastic products.
Another cause for the decision was the company's inability to generate sufficient business profits despite investing billions in their projects.
Reports alleged that some of the workers were already suspended for sabotage at work after they demanded their rights.
The employees reportedly demanded more benefits including leave pay, salaries of up to March 2022 and severance pay for each completed year of service.
“We don’t agree that the company’s plastic business is not viable since Central Planning and Monitoring Unit from Labour Ministry assessed the business and gave it a clean bill of health,” one of the workers told the media.
