Kenya

Kenya, worker rights, Solidarity Center

The Solidarity Center works with the Kenyan labor movement to boost wages, address corruption within political systems and advocate for pro-worker economic policies. Credit: Solidarity Center

The Solidarity Center works with the Kenyan labor movement to boost wages, address corruption within national and local political systems and advocate for pro-worker economic policies and shared prosperity.

The Solidarity Center’s principal partner is the Kenyan Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU-Kenya). With COTU-Kenya and its member unions, the Solidarity Center works to empower women and youth in trade unions to better enable them to advocate for their rights as union members and negotiate for improved working conditions.

Solidarity Center’s programs in Kenya include support for legal recognition of the workplace rights of domestic workers, who as workers in the informal economy, are not covered by wage laws, or job safety and health rules. Many workers, including domestic workers, migrate to other countries in search of better job opportunities, and Solidarity Center partners with unions and allies to educate workers about the risks of exploitation if they travel abroad, and to provide a broad range of assistance as they return to Kenya from jobs abroad.

Media Contact

Kate Conradt
Communications Director
(+1) 202-974 -8369

 

Domestic Workers Fight for Their Rights in Kenya

Domestic workers are some of the world’s most vulnerable workers, comprising a significant part of the global workforce in informal employment. Lucy Nyangasi, 26, a domestic worker in Nairobi, is one of some 67 million workers who labor in households around the world,...

Kenya Domestic Workers Push for Convention Ratification

Hundreds of domestic workers rallied in front of the Kenya Parliament in Nairobi today,  lobbying legislators to ratify International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 189, Decent Work for Domestic Workers. The effort is part of a larger campaign to improve wages...

Ensuring Access to Justice for Workers in Forced Labor

When Fauzia Muthoni arrived in Qatar from Kenya to work as a receptionist and earn money to support her family, the labor agent traveling with her informed Muthoni the job was in Saudi Arabia and escorted her to another plane. She tried calling her family, but...
Cheated of Good Job, Kenyan Warns Migrant Workers

Cheated of Good Job, Kenyan Warns Migrant Workers

In Mombasa, Kenya, a labor broker offered Frank Wetindi a job in Dubai as a driver. Wetindi went into debt to pay the broker, but was given a job unloading planes in brutal heat, for a salary far less than he was promised.  Living with eight men crammed in one room,...

Kenya Union: Ban on Labor Recruiting Agencies Should Stay

Kenya Union: Ban on Labor Recruiting Agencies Should Stay

The Central Organization of Trade Unions–Kenya (COTU-K) said the country’s recent decision to lift its ban on workers migrating to Qatar and Saudi Arabia for jobs is “ill advised,” and urges the government to keep the ban in place until the Ministry of Labor provides...

Brazil, Kenya Women Leaders on Front Line of Change

Brazil, Kenya Women Leaders on Front Line of Change

When Rose Omamo started work in 1988 as a mechanic in a vehicle assembly plant in Kenya, she was one of two women in a workplace dominated by hundreds of men. Her employer refused to recognize the women’s basic requests, and even her union, the Amalgamated Union of...

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