By Mulengera Reporters
For years, Uganda Airlines customers have demanded to have disciplinary proceedings commenced against Ms Clara Misire, a Kenyan lady, who serves as the passenger check-in supervisor at Entebbe International Airport but all in vain. In her late 40s, Ms Misire has been one of the many expatriates working at Uganda Airlines for now more than three years.
Upon being dissatisfied with her approach towards them, many Uganda Airlines customers and travellers have for years been imploding. Many aggrieved passengers have recorded tik tok videos over the years complaining about rudeness and maltreatment.
They say she doesn’t talk to them courteously and arbitrarily blocks them from travelling with some of their stuff even when the same has clearly been permitted at the ticket purchase stage. Yet ironically, she has always been untouchable and even her immediate supervisors at the Airline fear to stand up to her alleged bullying antics.
Big people, upon being maltreated, often call managers of the Airline they happen to know only for the Kenyan supervisor to decline speaking to them. Her inflexibility has always rubbed Ugandan passengers travelling on Uganda Airlines the wrong way yet not many have been able to successfully stand up to her.
She one time bullied and humiliated a female intern deployed to work at the airport under her supervision and unknown to her, that young lady that one time was being bullied and asked to return home at 12am, was a daughter of a General. The General raised dust up to top management but officials in the HR/Personnel office at the Airline headquarters feared cracking the whip because Ms Misire is powerfully connected and no one steps on her and get away with it. This is why her immediate supervisors and superiors at the Airline avoid crossing her path.
THINGS FALL APART:
But her luck ran out last Sunday when she closed the flight and stopped people, who had duly paid up, from proceeding to board the scheduled Uganda Airlines aircraft 90 minutes to departure time.
Uknown to her, one of the victims of her arbitrary action was a powerful Minister in the government of Uganda. The no-no-sense Minister immediately raised the top management of Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA), the regulator.
The member of top management immediately raised the UCAA staff on ground who verified and established the Minister’s whistle blower information was true. The UCAA staff at the airport went on to reveal to their top management superior that this particular passenger check-in supervisor had always been considered complicated and inflexible by many other travellers. It was indicated many customer complaints had been raised about her for such a long time.
It was revealed that the HR or Personnel office at the Airline had always been notified about this feedback but there had been no appetite to reprimand her. Upon consultation, the regulator decided to have the UCAA “airport pass” removed from her and there is no way she can continue accessing the airport as airline staff and be able to do any work.
This airport pass implies permission by any airline staff to access the airport and facilitate passenger movement. Withdrawing it is one of the ways through which UCAA can show displeasure at a given airline staff.
A top aviation official who is well briefed about the matter says that to their shock and consternation, some top officials at Uganda Airlines tried to intervene pleading that the regulator restores the Kenyan supervisor’s pass to enable Ms Misile carry on with her work. Because the aggrieved Minister has vowed not to back off, the regulator has stood his grounds and has so far resisted pressure from senior people at Uganda Airlines to have Ms Misire’s ‘airport pass,’ that was confiscated and withdrawn on Tuesday, returned to her.
“We remain flabbergasted by all this pressure to re-instate that Kenyan lady yet the Uganda Airlines top management has always been quick to reprimand staff even after a slight customer care-related complaint from a passenger. Even when there have been a series of complaints and that the whistle blower on this latest incident is a Minister, powerful people insider the Airline are seemingly determined to shield that Kenyan lady and we are wondering what makes her untouchable yet she is of a junior rank. People have been terminated even upon small complaints but this one’s case is very glaring yet everyone at the Airline is nervous about reprimanding her,” says a senior official involved int the saga.
At Uganda Airlines, Ms Misire is powerful and not an ordinary supervisor and this can be illustrated in a multiplicity of ways. Sources described her as far much more powerful than even the managers who are supposed to supervise her.
At a time her peers and fellow staffers at the same rank were earning just Shs2.5m, her monthly remuneration was at Shs5m. This would puzzle many yet whoever overtly complained about it would be targeted for victimization either through termination or no-renewal of employment contract upon expiry.
Her junior rank notwithstanding, Ms Misire is privileged to be one of the five members comprising Uganda Airlines’ contracts committee which handles, awards and solely has the last world on the multi-billion contracts and tenders to suppliers of Uganda Airlines. Her contracts committee membership is something many more senior colleagues at work are aggrieved about but they can only whisper about in the corridors.
Ms Misire can afford to ignore anyone at the Airline and nothing ever gets done to her, not even a warning letter yet many staffers have had to be dismissed merely because a customer gave negative feedback about them.
It remains to be seen for how long UCAA bosses, who are always conscious when required to crack the whip on Uganda Airline the same being a sensitive investment for the GoU, are going to be prepared to stick to their guns not to reinstate Ms Misire. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
