The anatomy of Kenya’s restless workforce occupying streets in protest

Preceding and even accompanying the strikes, have been the two seasons of deadly street protests. The Azimio-led 2023 protests to call out the administration for paying lip service the rising cost of l living, to the 2024 Gen-Z led protests to protest a poor governance and a punitive Finance Bill 2024 being rammed through despite legitimate concerns from the citizens. 

The KK administration seems destined to leap from handling one emergency to the next. There is an idiom that goes, once bitten twice shy? The question is, are there any lessons learnt here?

AVIATION WORKERS STRIKE OVER ADANI DEAL 

The Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) is the gateway to Kenya and if you like, to East Africa, but mismanagement and poor governance is slowly but surely putting that reputation at risk. Other countries in the Eastern Africa region, more intentional and strategic in their plans and action, have left JKIA holding the worthless fame as they comfortable stride on with unveiling bigger new projects and grand refurbishment of their existing airports. 

When the Jubilee Administration attempted to build a second runway in 2015 at JKIA to prop up its plane and passenger handling capacity, our strange fetish for bungling up important projects cropped up again. Kenyans are Ksh. 4.5B poorer for that misstep, courtesy of the government with no apologies, not even an explanation!

On 11 September 2024, members of the Kenya Airport Workers Union (KAWU), the major labor union representing workers within the civil aviation industry in Kenya downed their tools to protest the planned take-over of JKIA by the Adani Group. They were objecting a planned deal to lease the facility to the Adani for 30 years in return for an investment of $1.85bn. It was not the most surprising occurrence; they had been threatening for weeks to take labor action for the same reason. Other major airports within the country downed their tools in solidarity with their colleagues at JKIA. This morphed into a crisis of immense proportions and Kenya was literally locked down within hours. 

The crux of the matter is that the Adani Group, from India, had submitted a Privately Initiated Proposal (PIP) to the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) early in the year to operate JKIA for 30 years. Airport staff say the proposal is shrouded in mystery and could render them jobless as they have never been in any part of the talks.  

Following the strike, the Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Roads and Transport and the Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) boss, Francis Atwoli turned up and placated the workers to resume work even though the debate over the Adani takeover rages on. This could just be another lull before the storm as other critics are the opinion the deal would deny Kenya substantial benefits and profits from the public built and funded facility, whose operations fees contribute to more than five percent of Kenya’s gross domestic product (GDP).

TEACHERS DOWN CHALK AS CIVIL SERVANTS AVERT STRIKE 

A threat to strike by the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and actualized on by Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) respectively over failure by the government to implement initially agreed Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).  

The Kenya Civil Service Union had their strike averted when at the last minute, the Public Service Cabinet Secretary Justin Muturi revealed that Treasury has approved Ksh.1.5 billion for the purpose of fulfilling their CBA terms. Civil servants had threatened to boycott work at the end of the month, accusing their employer of lacking commitment to honor the second phase of their CBA, which covers July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025.

KNUT, having given prior notice to down their tools hastily called off its planned strike after talks with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) leaving KUPPET to battle it out alone. A week after, KUPPET called off their strike to the dissatisfaction of many of its members.

The second phase of the teachers CBA was delayed, with the government citing lack of money. Public Service Cabinet Secretary Justin Muturi averted the strike when he said the National Treasury would release Ksh.1.5 billion for the purpose. 

UNEASY UNIVERSITY DONS 

On September 4, 2024, lecturers at public universities took to the streets to demand the enforcement of the 2017-21 CBA. The strike, probably prompted when the Technical University of Kenya (TUK) received less salaries than anticipated, came after the Universities’ Academic Staff Union (UASU) issued a seven-day ultimatum that lapsed on August 26, 2024.

Among the important issues raised by the academic staff union include the need for their long-overdue salary increase, delays in salary payments or partial pay, and the non-remittance of statutory and third-party deductions, including but not limited to facility or loans repayments, insurance premiums and pension contributions.

Meanwhile, the striking university dons said they will not relent until their demands are fully met. This has led to a state of uncertainty especially new and joining students who might be left to their own devices. 

MEDICS’ EXODUS FROM HOSPITALS 

Before then, on July 8, the Kenya Union of Clinical Officers (KUCO) officially called off their 99 day strike and instructed all members to return to their workstations. This is after they signed of a Return to Work agreement between their labor union and the Council of Governors (CoG).

Slightly more than 4,000 doctors are employed in the public healthcare sector in Kenya. A majority of them participated in the strike that began on 14 March 2024 in which they demanded for the immediate implementation of a CBA signed with the government in 2017. 

However, the government said that due to a cash crunch, it did not have the funds to honor the agreement signed by Jubilee Administration. After a stalemate on many occasions, on May 8, the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) leaders announced they had reached a return to work formula, ending the grueling 56 days of strike that saw heavy loss of lives. 

However, they regretted the many lives lost during the strike and agreed to return to work despite the government not meeting all their demands key among them being the posting of medical interns. Kenya currently is still short of medical doctors as statistics indicate there are 2.3 doctors for every 10,000 people in the country. The ideal doctor to citizen ratio by the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends one doctor for every 1,000 citizens.

STRIKE NOTICES STREAMING

On September 4, Kenya county government employees issued a 21-day strike notice over delayed salary increases. The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Kenya County Government Workers Union (KCGWU) gave the strike notice. The union's top leaders vowed to rally all its members from the 47 counties to down their tools and paralyze operations in the 47 devolved units. 

On the other hand, UASU has for the second time issued a strike notice to all its members after it recently suspended the first notice to give talks a chance over the stalled negotiations on the 2021-25 collective bargaining agreement. UASU says that from September 18, learning across all public universities will be disrupted as the strike begins. 

The union says the Inter-Public Universities Council Consultative Forum (IPUCCF) has been taking them in circles since September 4, 2020, when they first submitted their proposals for the CBA and since then, have fruitlessly engaged state representative in more than ten meetings to no avail.

Also, the Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN), Trans Nzoia County branch, has issued a strike notice. They faulted the county leadership for failing to implement an MoU they claim they had with the County government of Trans Nzoia. The branch union secretary, Edward Cheruyiot, stated that from September 25, all public sector nurses in the county will down their tools until an amicable solution is arrived at.

Even the presumed efficient and well-oiled private sector workers have not been spared the labor strike bug. Doctors at the high end Nairobi Hospital have issued a public notice saying they will not admit patients starting midnight Monday, September 16. 

However, the hospital management issued a quick rejoinder urging the public to ignore the doctors’ notice but the cat was already out of the bag. The doctors are demanding the immediate resignation of the Nairobi Hospital Board and say their strike is in response to the “crisis in the governance at the Nairobi Hospital by the board of management.”

The season to strike is with us, all one needs is a reason to strike. For the KK administration it has become a baptism of fire which hopefully will point them to the most important resource in this land, the human resource.