COTU secretary-general Francis Atwoli on Thursday narrrated the details of one of his life moments that he wished his fellow countrymen had witnessed.

Speaking before the Building Bridges advisory team, Atwoli conveyed that receiving the National Order of Merit Award in Algeria had been a highly emotional affair for him.

"President Abdelaziz Bouteflika together with his whole cabinet recognized me and I shed all my tears.

"I said, I wish Kenyans were watching this. I was given the award because of all the good work I have done for the African workers, they recognized me, in Algeria," he narrated.

Atwoli made history when he received the award in 2016. He became the first non-Algerian national to receive the award and also the first trade union leader to receive the award.

Atwoli had appeared before the special task force to present his views as the team conducts a public engagement exercise in line with their mandate.

Referendum is Inevitable

The COTU boss asserted that a Constitutional referendum is a must and proposed that the new constitution should include favourable terms for workers, as well as, clear guidelines for those who are to be selected as leaders in Kenya.

"I want to assure you that we are going to amend Kenya's constitution. I'm assertive of that one, Kenyans will demand the changes and it will come to pass.

"We have a lot of litigation at the Labour and Employment relations court and if we will have the referendum, the lawyers will help us to have the court stand alone as it was before.

"If we are to amend the Constitution then we need to address the question of who is fit to be a leader. If we had proper guidelines to identify our leaders then we will not have corruption," Atwoli said as he proposed a rotational model of the presidency.