Doctoral Thesis Plantation Struggles in Kenya: Trade Unionism on the Land 1947-63 David Nicholas Hyde Department of History School of Oriental and African Studies University of London Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2000 ProQuest Number: 10731711 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10731711 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Abstract The following work examines the making of Kenya’s plantation proletariat and its social physiognomy in Thika and Kiambu districts from the late forties to the mid sixties. The work proceeds from the value relations of the coffee commodity on the world market and then to production relations within the districts concerned. Select estates within these areas are then identified in order to trace the workings of the law of value from its appearance as prices in the world market to the origins ofsurplus value and struggles over its extraction within the workplace. The increased rate of exploitation tliroughout the plantation economy is then identified as the principal subterranean impulse to workers’ recourse to trade unionism. There followed a qualitative leap forward as workers on the plantations and in industry moved into simultaneous strike actions in response to the announcement of preparations for African majority government. The formative years of the plantation unions are then reviewed in conjunction with strikes on the coffee estates. The reciprocal impacts of plantation and industrial strikes are emphasised throughout. These have been reconstructed to reveal an uneven yet combined movement of workers in both rural and urban locations, though one which suffered from bureaucratic deformations and distortions. As such this project has revealed a crucial moment in the making of the Kenyan working class along with its inherent contradictions. In opposition to this development, attempts by the State to impose severe conditions on union recognition are examined. The development of corporatism has been considered as part of attempts by the state to control and emasculate the developing working class and its organisations. How and why the bureaucratisation of the plantation unions occurred is investigated as well as analysing its impact on coffee workers during the course of decolonization. The emergence of a syndicalist trend of rank and file, often errant, agitators and the weaknesses of this tendency related to the ideology which it shared with its bureaucratic opponents is also identified. The role of the Kenya Federation of Labour as the principal agency for the incorporation of the plantation unions into the state apparatus is then P aced to the advent of the omnibus Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union. This was paralleled by an opposed trajectory emanating from workers themselves which reached its highest point in the 1962 General Strike. The insoluble problems of arbitration which heralded the unstable foundations of post independence corporatism are then investigated. Overall, the thesis points to a fifth column of labour lieutenants that was pivotal to the bourgeois nationalist transmutation of LIhuru. The work also gives clause and subclause attention to the principal ordinances in the context of a wide range of disputes to show how these operated in a concrete setting. The research brings the period 1959-63 into focus, when these laws were being broken on a widespread scale as result of spontaneous strike waves. The associate problems which rent conciliation machinery are contextually discussed throughout. The thesis shows that a defining characteristic of the period was the inability of the labour bureaucracy to restrain and arrest successive strike movements on the plantations and elsewhere in accordance with the rules of conflict resolution defined by colonial labour laws. Finally, the thesis has sought an epistemological break with existent work in the field and for this reason has identified the philosophical roots of past contributions and drawn upon Marx’s dialecticalmethod to help resolve the problems of analysis and interpretation that have held back previous research. ii Table o j Contents List o f Tables vii Acknowledgements viii Preface x Abbreviations xi Map of Central Province xiii 1. Perspectives and Refutations I The Importance of Marx’ s Scientific Method 2 Kenyan Labour History 6 Colonial Corporatism 15 Trade Unions and the Struggle for Independence 19 2. The World Coffee Crisis and its Impact on Kenya 30 The Coffee Crisis and the Balance of Trade, 19S6 - 60 31 The Stresses of Global Competition 33 The Planters Protest Government Deductions 43 The Course Towards African Coffee Production 46 Theoretical Perspectives on the Crisis 48 3. Production Relations at the Turning Point 53 The Fraught Course of Stabilisation 53 The Moloch Demands for Kikuyu Labour 61 The Attack on Resident Labour 64 The Labour Market: Landlessness, Unemployment, and Resistance 66 iii 4. The Rate of Exploitation and the Beginnings of Trade Unionism 73 The Wages Question 73 Supervision and Discipline 77 First Stirrings : Strikes in Tliika and Kiambu 79 The Origins of the Plantation Unions 87 5. The Qualitative Leap Forward 93 The Qualitative Leap Forward 93 Plantation Struggles in Thika 96 The Strike Movement and the Rise of die C.P.W.U. 109 6. The Contradictions of Conciliation 119 Pay, Recognition and Access 119 The Politics of Bookkeeping 126 The Union Bureaucracy Rescues Managerial Audiority 132 7 . The Crisis of Leadership within the C.P.W.U. 139 The Attempt at Devolved Corporatism 139 The Crisis of Leadership Matures 141 Breakdown of the January Agreement 145 The State Renews its Attacks on the Union 147 To Strike, or Not to Strike 149 Plantation Struggles in Thika and Kiambu 152 The C.P.W.U. De-registered 158 iv 8. The S.C.P.W .U. : One Step Forward, Two Steps Back 161 Emergence of the Combined Union 161 The K.F.L.’s Corporatist Amalgamation 163 Amalgamation Reinstates Sectionalism 165 The Course Towards an All Out Strike 170 Board of Enquiry: An Escape from the Impending Confrontation? 173 The Material Basis of Sectionalism and Uniformity 176 9. The (Coffee General Strike* and the Stresses o f Compromise 180 An All Embracing Conflict 180 All Out in Kiambu 181 ‘Reconciling’ the Irreconcilable: The Role of Tom Mboya 183 A General Strike in all but Name 185 The Strike Movement in Ruiru 187 Board of Inquiry Resurrected 193 Pay, Conditions and the Strains of the Standing Joint Council 195 The Union Splits Wide Open 199 The Class Struggle goes to Arbitration 202 10. The K.P.A.W .U. and the Course Towards Corporatism 2 0 9 A Split and Divided Bureaucratic Stratum 209 Separatists and Secessionism Abound 215 Workers Opposition to the Imposed ‘Unity’ 222 V Conclusion 2 2 9 Compradorism and Revolution 229 The Contradictions of Trade Unionism 230 The Unstable Foundations of Corporatism 233 Results and Prospects 238 A ppendices 2 4 0 * Tables give details of estate, number, occupation and gender of strikers, man hours lost, trade union involvement, causes and resolution of disputes. 1, Stoppages of Work caused by Industrial Disputes in Kenya, 1951-74. 240 2. Guide to Causation. 241 3. Strikes and Trade Disputes in Thika and Kiambu, 1947-59. 242 4. Stoppages of Work caused by Industrial Disputes in Kenya, 1959. 243 S.* Coffee Strikes in Thika District, 1959. 244 6.* Disputes in Other Industries, Thika 1959. 245 7. Stoppages of Work caused by Industrial Disputes in Kenya, 1960. 246 8.* Coffee Strikes in Thika, 1960-1. 247 9.* Disputes in Other Industries, Thika 1960. 249 10.*Coffee Strikes in Kiambu, 1960. 251 1 l.*Disputes in Other Industries, Kiambu 1959-60. 253 12. Stoppages of W ork caused by Industrial Disputes in Kenya, 1961. 254 13.*Disputes in Other Industries, Thika 1961-2. 255 14.*Coffee Strikes in Kiambu, 1961. 257 15.*Disputes in Other Industries, Kiambu 1961-3. 258 16. Stoppages of Work caused by Industrial Disputes in Kenya, 1962. 259 17.*Coffee Strikes in Thika, 1962. 260 18.* Coffee Strikes in Kiambu, 1962. 261 19. Stoppages of Work caused by Industrial Disputes in Kenya, 1963. 262 20.*Coffee Strikes in Thika Distinct, 1963. 263 21.*Disputes in Other Industries, Thika 1963-4, 264 22.*Coffee Strikes in Kiambu, 1963-6. 267 23. Stoppages of work Caused by Industrial Disputes in Kenya, 1964. 269 24.*Coffee Strikes in Thika, 1964-6. 270 25.*Disputes in Other Industries, Kiambu 1964-5. 271 26. Stoppages of Work Caused by Industrial Disputes in Kenya, 1965. 272 27.*Disputes in Other Industries, Thika 1965-6. 273 28.*Disputes in Other Industries, Kiambu 1966-8. 276 29. Comparative summary of strikes by district including number of man hours lost, 1959-68. 278 30. Distribution and analysis of strikes by industry, including number of strikers and man hours lost, 959-68. 280 31. The Coffee Industry in Central Province, giving details of numbers and average size of estates, acreages and locations as at July 1960. 285 32. K.C.G.A. Member Estates giving details of numbers and average size of estates, acreages and locations as at December 31st, 1960. 286 33. Anatomy of tire Coffee Industry in Thika district giving details of ownership and acreage of estates, tribal and gender composition of the workforce as at August 1960.