Africa EV firm Spiro accused of torturing Uganda employees

Four employees of Spiro, Africa's leading electric motorbike firm, on Tuesday accused company managers in Uganda of severely beating them as punishment for poor performance.

A complaint was filed by the Uganda Law Society, in which the four say they were summoned to Spiro's offices in the capital, Kampala, on June 8 where a group of senior managers began "beating, thrashing and whipping" them.

"The victims sustained injuries, for example lacerations, bruising, and psychological trauma," it said, adding that the abuse amounted to torture.

The group were were being punished for "mismanaging" the battery exchanges for Spiro motorbikes, which they denied.

They were locked in a room for several hours and forced to write confessions, before being told they were fired, according to the complaint, which was filed to the Uganda Human Rights Commission.

Their lawyer, Jjumba Anthony, said this was not an isolated case.

"This has been happening a lot, but people fear to come out and tell their story because of the intimidation," he told AFP by phone.

One of the complainants told the Uganda Law Society that she was forcibly taken to a room behind the company's warehouse, where she found colleagues beaten and some unconscious.

"One young man was lying on the floor. His shirt was torn, and he appeared to have been severely beaten... The men were holding electric cables and sticks," she said, according to an account shared online by the Law Society.

"I still bear physical marks from the assault. I sustained injuries on different parts of my body, including my back and buttocks. The pain was severe and lasted for weeks," said another of the complainants.

One video seen by AFP shows one of the complainants, still wearing his Spiro T-shirt, as apparent managers shout and beat him around the head.

On June 22, senior managers abducted one of the group from his home, where they "beat him up, manhandled him and threw him in one of the two company vehicles that had come and then whisked him away to an unknown destination," the complaint added.

He emerged the following day from a police station, with no charge made against him.

Spiro said in a statement to AFP that it "has a zero-tolerance policy for torture, harassment and any other human rights violations.

"We take these allegations extremely seriously and have initiated an internal review. Spiro Uganda is fully cooperating with the competent authorities to ensure a fair, independent and lawful investigation," it added.

The market for electric motorbikes has boomed in east Africa, with a further boost from the war in the Middle East this year pushing up fuel prices.

Spiro currently dominates, and says it has sold around 100,000 two-wheelers across the continent.

Its competitors have accused it of irregular business practices, including winning illegal tax breaks in Kenya and swamping the market with bikes before the battery infrastructure is in place to handle the load.