MCA Collins Ayugu, the owner of Havannas Lounge in Kakamega, is facing deeply disturbing claims from former workers who claim they were denied their wages, threatened, beaten, confined and sexually assaulted.
The accusations, go far beyond an ordinary dispute between an employer and employees. They raise serious questions about workplace safety, human dignity and the responsibility of anyone running a business where people depend on their jobs to survive.
According to a detailed account made public by former workers to Cyprian Is Nyakundi, some employees were dismissed without being paid salaries and other amounts they had already earned. When they returned to demand what was owed to them, they say they were met with intimidation instead of answers.
Rather than being treated as workers seeking payment for completed work, they describe being threatened and chased away by men acting on behalf of the establishment.
Even more troubling are claims surrounding a room inside the lounge that workers describe as a locked store or cell. The account alleges that employees were confined there, beaten and sexually assaulted.
This reports cannot simply be brushed aside as a disagreement over salaries or dismissed as an internal business matter.
The alleged treatment of workers raises an uncomfortable question: what happens when people who depend on their wages are made to choose between remaining silent and risking further intimidation?
Workers have limited power when facing an employer or powerful individuals acting on an employer’s behalf. That imbalance becomes frightening when allegations of violence and confinement enter the picture.
The former employees are reportedly not demanding favours. They are demanding payment for work they say they already performed. They want the salaries they earned and an end to what they describe as threats and intimidation. That is a basic demand that should not require courage in the face of violence.