Sexually abused and underpaid women in the local mining community working in Kosiroi quarry which  belongs to Tororo Cement Limited (TCL) have called for government intervention.

While attending a community sensitisation meeting organised by village elders and Ireland project yesterday in Kosiroi, Moroto, the angry women expressed their grief, saying that men employed by TCL to load mables onto the trucks have always raped them in addition to the company giving them peanuts as payment for their quarried stones.

Agnes Lokongo , one of the miners said: "When we take our local brew and get drunk while in quarrying sites, the loaders come and take advantage of us...they have been doing this for a longer period now but when we report to police, nothing is done to them."

On less payment for each trip of a full truck, she said: "The money is not enough to buy food especially when working in groups of three and four. The low prices have incapacitated our ability to pay fees for our children. The company should really consider us and increase payment for our labour." She added that government should quickly go for their rescue.

However, the acting OC Tapac Sub-county, Yusuf Atikiro said that they have never recorded any cases of rape from Kosiroi, but instead said that such cases should have been properly handled by the police post that is located in the quarrying community in Kosiroi.

Through their translator, the company officials said that they had not received complaints about rape and they promised to look into the mater.

Joseph Loru Iriama, the Katikekile parish councilor said that as a result of the various rape cases, HIV/Aids is on the rise in the area, and they are going to talk to the management of Tororo company to see how to abate the vice.

But the miners also said that they are being exploited as the prices for a full truck ranges between Shs 80,000 and Shs 210,000 depending on the quantity that the truck carries, which amount should be increased to at least Shs 300,000.

They said that they spend a lot of money on breaking the stones into smaller sizes which increases the costs of productions as a result of hiring additional labour and buying their incentives like refreshments, hence ending up with less profits of about Shs 30,000 to Shs 50,000.

According to Loduk Lopirakwang, an elder in the community, the trucks used by Tororo Cement are too large. Lapirakwang was also unhappy with the extra trucks attached to main vehicles.

In response, TCL's translator said since these miners are getting the stones from the company's land which it aquired 14 years back, it means they are their employees and should accept that payment. He said: "If people are complaining of the prices we can bring machines and replace them."

To bring the lost hope back, the Irish Aid project in the area urged mining communities to form associations of 20 t0 30 members for purposes of empowerment. The project also promised to pool Shs 25,000 for each of the 20 associations that have so far been formed.

Since 2002, Tororo cement has been extracting Marble from Kosiroi. The company has a mining lease running for 99 years.

tusiime.chris20@gmail.com