{As I was preparing my recorder ready to get on with the important interview, I still could not believe what I had learnt in the course of my research. I was eager to get fast hand information that could allow me to complete my piece.}

It’s worth noting that due to the nature of his job my interviewee asked for anonymity and I fully aware of how the system works I granted it.

He is a senior employee of one of the major Clearing Companies in Rwanda. He has a wealthy of experience having worked for more than five clearing companies since year 2001 but he has little or nothing to celebrate.

“I was lucky to land a job immediately after my graduation,” He says.

“Those days you never thought about how much money you were getting, employment was a big problem and so you took any opportunity coming your way”. He continued.

This however gave birth to the problem we have today in Clearing and Forwarding companies. The Local and international investors took advantage of readily available cheap labour and lack of well-established labour laws.

“At that time our government was still trying to establish structures and so nobody bothered to check on issues like basic wages”. My interviewee noted.

The Companies recruited at will and fired at will, he tells me. They came up with their own remuneration structures that well reflected their projected profits.

“As a graduate I started with a basic salary of only RWF25000. This meagre salary was to go through all tax deduction any basic income goes through. At the end I could find myself with less than 15000 francs left to spend and save.” He explained.

My interviewee had to shift from that company to another that promised five thousand more when the time to marry came, since then he has jumped from one company to the other in the hope of getting better wages .

In my research,I came to realize that even as the government and the public solely depend on the clearing agents to collect customs,taxes and levies for sustainability, they are underpaid.

Their living standards are in a sorry state and nobody seems to care. Their working conditions are wanting and dangerous as it only takes a single mistake and you are sent in jail as my interviewee explains.

`To start with,even as we speak right now am still fighting with my current employer to get a contract. They have promised to offer us a contract but year after another we have got nothing. I earn 80000 francs as a the basic salary. This has to go through deductions as usual leaving me with nothing.” He lamented.

A father of three, two daughters and a son lives today hoping for a better tomorrow. His employer fires at the slightest provocation and its only by Gods grace and experience that he has managed to carry on.

Speaking to one of clearing company director called kagaba from company dedaunement et transit (CODETRANS), I learned that the problem solely lies with whole sector.

`It is not this company alone that is doing this, it’s something that is done by all companies in agreement to make sure that labour cost stays down. If one company plans to raise the basic wages, others quickly come together to oppose the move. It means only the government can effect the changes by changing the regulation”. He told me.

The government policy has been `Employ more pay less’ , this has however not been structured well enough to take care of issues like level of education, experience, work done among other factors allowing the Clearing agents to exploit the employees.

The question my employee and many like him are asking is when will this suffering end , ` Am asking the government to intervene and rescue us from this, we collect the revenue that keeps the government going and so it’s painful to see that nobody is looking at our welfare”.

{Author is a student at Mount Kenya University Department of Journalism Trimester 2}