COTU, Govt, Must Protect the Kenyan Worker

'Bleeding a leech to fatten a heifer.' This is how Wamala, a character in the play 'the burdens' by the late Ugandan literary giant John Ruganda characterises the exploitation of the haves by the havennots with the blessings of the government. When COTU Secretary General pointed out the obvious exploitation of Kenyan workers by unscrupulous businesses on his Labour Day address, some elements of the exploitative class took issue with his naming Nakumatt as a leading culprit. While Atwoli’s claims about this leading retail chain was an obvious and by no means the only case, the reality is that many Kenyans work for peanuts under dehumanizing conditions as employers take advantage of rising joblessness to trap our desperate men and women into a self-replicating cycle of poverty and exploitation. Assuming that it is true (very unlikely), the argument that Nakumatt employees do not need to Unionize because they earn above the minimal wage is a very myopic understanding of workers rights, the role of unions, and the principle of associational representation. Our government is itself complicit in this mistreatment of workers through structures that legalize for instance phenomena like ‘permanent casuals’ especially in Asian-owned or Asianised industries. This ensures that even those who have dedicated their entire lifetime working for these accumulators go home without terminal benefits when they retire, or worse still, when they accidentally become incapacitated. It also means that employees cannot voice their concerns for fear of their three-month cycle of employment not being renewed. The failure of the state to enforce minimal wages means that some employers have failed to see a moral contradiction between their huge profits and the fact that more than half of their staff live in the slums of Nairobi. It is a pity that the state has put the interest of foreign and local capitalists before the lives and dignity of Kenyans, raising fundamental questions on citizenship and the right to be protected by the state. But Atwoli’s call must now go beyond mere annual rhetoric. COTU must take judicial measures to compel the government to protect its citizens from exploitation and dehumanization. From EPZs, flower farms, tea farms, and even security guard companies that have an enduring history of employee exploitation and human rights violations, let Atwoli’s call be followed by tangible steps towards justice and the restoration of the dignity of the Kenyan worker. Nakumatt, after all, is just one such site of exploitation and dehumanization.