The Central Organization of Trade Unions, COTU (K) is the National Trade Union Center in Kenya. COTU (K) was founded in 1965 upon dissolution of the Kenya Federation of Labor and the African Workers’ Congress (KFL – AWC). COTU (K) is registered and operates within the provisions of the Labour … read moreRelations Act, 2007 of the Laws of Kenya.
THE HISTORY OF THE LABOUR MOVEMENT IN KENYA
Like all nations, Kenya has been founded on the efforts of many people, institutions, organizations, corporations and professions. One of the foundations upon which the nation has been built is the Central Organisation of Trade Unions, COTU, the largest association of workers’ unions that has shaped relations between Kenyan employers and workers since soon after the country’s independence and in the process impacted on the pace as well as direction of Kenya’s economic development.
Fifty years after independence, Kenya has approximately two million workers in the formal sector more than 75 per cent of who belong to trade unions. Of the country’s 42 trade unions, 36 belong to COTU and they represent more than 1.5 million workers both in the public and private sectors of the economy. Whether through negotiations for better wages and terms of employment or through tougher measures such as court action or labour strikes, trade unions have shaped the relations between employers and employees. COTU has been their strongest common voice in those relations.
It has not always been like that. Kenya’s trade union movement evolved through difficult situations created by the British colonial government which persistently defended employers in order to prevent the rise of an organized labour movement. But towards the end of the 1930s, there was a slight change in policy. The colonial government allowed the creation of unions but in a very restricted and limited way as far their rights and operations were concerned.
The opportunity was seized by pioneers like Fred Kubai, Makhan Singh and Bildad Kaggia to start trade unions. In 1935 Makhan Singh at the request of Asians workers set up the Indian Trade Union which he soon broadened to embrace all races and trades. The union eventually became the Labour Trade Union of Kenya. By the late 1940s Kubai had set up the Transport and Allied Workers Union (TAWU) and Kaggia the Clerks and Commercial Workers Union.
By 1950, the active collaboration between Kubai and Singh led to the creation of the East African Trade Union Congress with Makhan Singh as secretary-general and Kubai as President. The two committed their congress to political objectives and with Singh’s self-avowed communism, the stage was set for confrontation with the colonial government.