Subcontractor & Gang Payments
On most Kenyan sites the main contractor pays the foreman or the gang leader, and what reaches the individual fundi depends on memory, goodwill and a notebook. That is where gang payment disputes are born. FundiPay lets you pay a whole gang in one run while still paying each worker directly, tracking work-in-progress against attendance that the site actually verified.
Updated October 17, 2026 · Product
The gang payment problem
Gangs are how Kenyan construction gets built: a mason, his assistants, a steel-fixing crew, a plastering team. Paying them as a lump sum is convenient but opaque. The gang leader does the splitting, the main contractor has no evidence of who did what, and when a worker claims they were underpaid there is no way to check. Everybody loses trust, and the best fundis leave for sites that pay individually.
How FundiPay pays a gang
Each worker in the gang is a FundiPay worker with their own verified record. Attendance comes from the geofenced muster roll, and rates are set per worker or per gang. When the wage period closes, the whole gang is paid in a single approved run, but the M-Pesa B2C payments go to each worker's own phone — so the gang leader is not the gatekeeper of everyone else's wages.
Because each worker is paid individually, the total cost of the gang is transparent, and the split is arithmetic rather than negotiation.
Tracking work-in-progress
FundiPay ties gang payments to verified attendance and agreed rates, so you can track work-in-progress instead of guessing at it.
- Agreed rates per worker, per gang or per task.
- Verified attendance feeding the amount due.
- A rolling view of work done versus work paid.
- Settlement at the agreed rate, with the calculation shown.
Clean records for the main contractor
When you subcontract, the main contractor wants evidence that labour was real and wages were paid. With FundiPay, a subcontractor can hand over a verified attendance record and a wage payment run instead of a hand-written claim. That evidence speeds up measured work being certified and paid, because the labour behind the claim is no longer guesswork.
Frequently asked questions
Do gang members need bank accounts or smartphones?
No. Each worker is paid by M-Pesa B2C to their own number, so any registered M-Pesa handset works. Check-in is by OTP over SMS on the same phone.
Can we pay a gang as a lump sum instead?
You can structure a run however the contract is set up, but paying each worker individually is what removes the disputes. It keeps the gang leader as a supervisor rather than a wage middleman.
How does this help a subcontractor get paid faster?
By producing verified attendance and clean wage records, a subcontractor can support a measured-work claim with evidence rather than assertion. Main contractors are quicker to certify work they can see was genuinely done by real, paid workers.
Can one worker belong to more than one gang?
Yes. A worker's record is portable, so the same fundi can work across gangs or sites, and their attendance and pay history stays continuous.
Keep reading
Solutions
For Subcontractors
Run your own gang payroll, prove attendance to the main contractor, and get paid faster with clean, auditable wage records.
Product
Digital Muster Roll for Construction Sites
A geotagged, tamper-proof digital muster roll that replaces the paper book — attendance verified by 50-metre geofence and locked in one tap.
Guides
Muster Roll Requirements in Kenya
What Kenyan construction sites must record about workers, why NCA expects a muster roll kept on site, and how a digital roll satisfies and strengthens an audit.
Glossary
Gang Pay
Paying construction labour by the team rather than the individual, with a gang leader responsible for the group's work and its share-out.