Kenya: The Mass-action economy!

Our current law is quite liberal in matters mass action and so there is little room for hang-ups. But that is not the main thing. The question should be when shall we be able to see genuine wholesome development if at every turn we only talk about strikes, boycotts and mass action!!

Today it is the teachers — you can be sure unless things will have changed, close to the time of national exams they will be at it again. Tomorrow it will be university lecturers then the doctors, the nurses, the political class and probably even the police may consider applying a go-slow to ask for their rights.

There is an old Kiswahili saying that loosely translated comes to something like: “When two bulls fight, it is the grass below them that suffers most.”

Bull One: Trade Unions;

Whatever else about trade unions, they are a great blessing to workers because they are allowed by law to fight for the rights and privileges of such workers.

One would hope that they also pay attention to the obligations that those same workers have towards their employer and in the case of service providers like teachers, lecturers, doctors and the like to their immediate clients. When it comes to fighting for those rights, the unions are indeed a most vicious bull.

Bull Two: The employer;

In the case of the provision of services that are paid for by the state it’s the government and other state organs. We have all seen what has been happening in Kenya in the last two weeks. Pupils who go to public schools did not attend class as the unions, the government, the TSC and the remuneration commission kept arguing about rights and privileges and how capable or otherwise the government is to pay. As the fight went on for the two weeks, the real sufferers were the pupils and their parents.

The Economy

One would of course be right to imagine that the children of the unionists and government officers do not go to public schools such as the affected ones but that is an argument for another day. For now it is gratifying to see that after the intervention of the industrial court the teachers will now report to work today. Whichever way the arbitration by the court goes, the question still remains as to how sustainable the current situation is going to be considering the economy.

Of course our current law is quite liberal in these matters and so there is little room for inhibitions. But that is not the main thing. The question should be when shall we be able to see genuine wholesome development if at every turn we only talk about strikes and boycotts.

Today it is the teachers — you can be sure unless things will have changed, close to the time of national exams they will be at it again. Tomorrow it will be university lecturers then the doctors the nurses and probably even the police may consider applying a go-slow to ask for their rights.

Time has come when all stakeholders both public and private must come together to evaluate the current state of affairs and then come up with a policy that will provide a guideline as to how remuneration and productivity must be managed; if only for sustainable growth of the economy.

Government has an obligation to organize such a forum and the sooner the better.