The origin of trade unions in Kenya

  

Date Posted: 4/19/2012 2:24:26 AM

Posted By: sashoo  Membership Level: Silver  Total Points: 382

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PRE-INDEPENDENCE PERIOD
Before independence, labor policies and laws were oppressive towards the employment of African Workers. Industrial relations were based on master- servant relationship.

Employment was in four-tiered structure, whereby Europeans were at the top followed by Asians, Arabs and Africans at the bottom.

Employers determined the working conditions unilaterally. The introduction of the “Kipande” system was used to discriminate African workers and to control labor movement.

Africans worked in order to pay discriminatory tax such as the poll tax or hut tax. This official discrimination made the problem of African Workers worse. The workers were not only discriminated in working places but also on the basis of racial color. African workers, therefore, used every opportunity to protest against poor working conditions and official discrimination on racial grounds.

The fight against colonial rule can not be differentiated from the fight for workers’ rights. And this could explain why the current labor movement is politicized in a way.

As early as in 1920s, strikes were reported in some areas but were more of political than industrial-based in nature. The 1st strike recorded was a strike by tribal constables (APS) in 1920.

Officially, trade unionism was registered in Kenya 1934. After 1943, way up to 1945, the trend of industrial relations changed with the launch of international trade unionism (the global movement dealing with trade unions), and the British trade union congress in particular played a crucial role in the Kenyan trade unionism.

After 1945, the government took trade unions seriously and set up an office for the registration of trade unions to regulate and control unionism. In 1946, a protective labor code was introduced. It improved the situation of labor.

In 1952, after the declaration of the state of emergency, the direction taken by trade unions changed. The political leaders were

detained and trade unions started playing the role of agitation for independence. In reaction to this, the government took up the development of the staff association and workers committees (e.g. statutory wage determination council). The committees formed can be seen as the basis for the current tripartite bodies e.g. the labor advisory board - currently known as the National Labor Board, the tripartite wages council etc.

POST INDEPENDENCE PERIOD
Before independence, Tom Joseph Mboya was the general secretary of Kenya Federation of Labor until 1957, and this was when (KNUT) was formed. Later after independence, Tom Mboya became the Minister of Labor and his rationale of accepting to be the minister was for the “development purpose”. As a result, other aspects of trade unions were forgotten. In 1962, Tom Mboya called the trade unions and employers associations and formulated the industrial relations charter. This document became a social agreement between the 3 social partners – the Government, Trade Union, and employers. This document also determined who could be unionized and who could not.

In 1965, there was a split in the Kenya Federation of Labor, which gave birth to 2 unions. Because of this split, the 2 unions were disbanded, and an umbrella body was formed in 1965 through sessional paper No 10 as the Central Organization Of Trade Unions – COTU.

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