The working-class history of the Republic of Kenya
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- Fear for Trade Union Leaders'
Life
- Red Pepper Magazine, 26 September
1997. Dr. Omari Onyango, Secretary General of Kenya's
University Academic Staff Union and Chair of the
International Centre for Trade Union Rights Kenya, is forced
to flee the country to avoid arrest.
- Workers walk out in protest
- By Owino Opondo and Kipkoech Tanui, Daily
Nation, 2 May 2000. Labour Day celebrations in
Nairobi ended in disarray when workers walked out en masse,
protesting at a six per cent minimum wage increment given by
the government. Wages for workers in the agricultural
industry were increased by the same margin.
- Labour Unrest Derails Growth
- By Jeff Otieno, The Nation (Nairobi), 6
October 2000. Kenya's poor economic performance has been
attributed to deteriorating infrastructure and increased
labour unrest. This, says the UN Trade and Development
Report 2000, has led to loss of investor confidence.
- Trade Unions Must Not Be
Constrained
- The Nation (Nairobi, Editorial, 4 November
2000. It would be tragic if Kenya's exports were
excluded from the U.S. AGOA because of the
government's cosy links with the trade union
movement. There have been threats by the ILO to blacklist
the country for failing to recognise conventions of
workers' rights. During the government's liaison
with labour it banned the Civil Servants Union.
- Report Illegal Workers, Drivers Told
- The Nation (Nairobi), 11 January 2001. Kenyan
truck drivers have been advised to forward information about
alleged illegal migrant workers to the authorities. Claims
by the unregistered Kenya Long Distance Truck Drivers'
Union that foreign transport companies based at the Coast
were employing foreign drivers and making local drivers
jobless.
- Blocking The Polls Won't Help
Workers
- The Nation (Nairobi), 19 January 2001. Need
for a fresh look at the Trade Unions Act, but trade
unionists wrong to tell workers to boycott elections
scheduled for this year unless the Act is amended. There are
32 unions represented at a Mombasa
labour awareness
workshop this week.
- Hopes Rise For Labour Pact Signing
- By Waweru Mugo, The Daily Nation, 13 March
2001. The signing of an Industrial Charter put off recently
after employers and workers' representatives protested
at their exclusion from the National Social Security Fund
board, but a breakthrough imminent in negotiations between
the government, the Central Organisation of Trade Unions
(COTU) and the Federation of Kenya Employers.