NAIROBI, KENYA – Jane Akinyi, 32, locks her small shack in Kibera, Nairobi’s largest slum, and swiftly makes her way through the narrow streets to join a file of women walking to South C, a middle-class suburb located in the south of the city, where they do housework.
It is a chilly morning, typical of the July weather here. But Akinyi says that after making the same journey every day for eight years, she is used to the cold.
“I have to be at work before 6 o’clock in the morning to prepare breakfast for my employers,” she says, quickening her steps.
Although she can get to work faster by hopping onto a bus, Akinyi says her salary is not enough to pay her bus fare and sustain her family. The single mother of three earns 4,200 shillings, $47 USD, per month.
Most of the women in the group are in their early 20s. They chat noisily as they cover the five-kilometer stretch to the suburb. The group grows thin as the women enter the suburb and finally melts away when they disappear into various homes to start the day’s work.
Like most of the domestic workers, Akinyi is employed on a casual basis, meaning the employer largely determines the terms of employment – including salary, time off and medical insurance. Some say they are sexually and physically abused.
Akinyi says she works until 7 p.m. – a more than 13-hour shift. Sometimes her employer arrives home late, though, so she isn’t able to leave until 8 p.m. She then has to walk home.
But she says her situation should improve once the government enforces a new law that requires employers to give domestic workers – who are mostly housemaids – a contract stipulating and improving the terms and conditions of their employment.
The Ministry of Labor passed the law last month to improve wages and working conditions for Kenya’s domestic workforce. The domestic workers say the law will afford them greater job security and wages to support their families. But they say they aren’t sure how the law will be enforced – a task unions pledge to work with the government on. Meanwhile, many employers say they won’t be able to afford the higher wages.
There are more than 1 million domestic workers in Kenya, according to the Center for Domestic Training and Development, a resource center for information, training and advice for domestic workers. The Central Organization Trade Union, COTU, an umbrella organization for trade unions, estimates that there are almost half a million domestic workers in Kenya, but it is still in the process of establishing an official database.
Kenya’s new domestic labor law was spurred by the International Labor Organization’s June adoption of Convention 189, which declares that domestic workers are entitled to the same basic labor rights as other workers.
Kenya’s Ministry of Labor passed its corresponding law last month, though the higher wages went into effect in May.
The new law sets the minimum monthly salary for housemaids at 7,586 shillings, $84 USD, in Nairobi and 7,000 shillings, $77 USD, for other counties. The maids currently earn between 2,000 shillings, $22 USD, and 4,500 shillings, $50 USD.
Under the new law, the maids are also entitled to two days of rest every week and an annual leave of 21 days with full salary. Currently, few maids report receiving even one day off per week.
Penalty for those who do not comply with the law will be six months imprisonment or a fine of 50,000 shillings, $555 USD, according to Albert Njeru, secretary-general of the Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers, a COTU-affiliated union.
Francis Atwoli, COTU secretary-general, says the housemaids deserve these improved conditions.
“Though they perform very vital roles in our homes, they are rarely acknowledged and the only reward they get is harassment and being locked up in homes and not being allowed to go to church or even join [unions],” Atwoli says.
Housemaids largely say they welcome the new law.
“It is a good move, which shows that the government is concerned about us,” Akinyi says. “I can save part of the salary and start a small business in [the] future.”
Another housemaid, whose name has been concealed to protect her job, agrees.
“I will be more than glad to get a contract so I can feel more secure at work,” the housemaid, a mother of one, says.
She says that her boss currently mistreats her.
“My boss threatens to sack me every time I do something wrong,” she says. “Sometimes she throws me out of the house at night and hurls insults at me.”
She says this treatment is routine, making the law necessary.
“I’ve been to many homes where I have been mistreated,” she says. “I just hope the new laws will make our employers more human and not stir their wrath against us.”
She says she came to Nairobi three years ago in search of employment, leaving her 5-year-old son with her parents in Mwingi, a district in Kenya’s Eastern province. She says that she didn’t have qualifications for any skilled work, so she took up housework in Buru Buru, a suburb located on the east side of Nairobi. She says she has been dismissed without pay twice.
“In one of the cases, my boss threw me out, saying she would send my money through M-PESA, but she never did,” she says, referring to a money transfer system for mobile phones.
Because of experiences like this, Akinyi and her colleagues say they are excited about the new law. But they voiced concerns about how it will be enforced.
“How will the government compel my employer to pay me more yet I’m not registered with any union?” asks Florence Wanjala, 30. “How do they know I exist?”
Atwoli says COTU will work with the government, which doesn’t have the capacity to enforce the law. COTU plans to go from door to door to ensure that employers comply with the new law.
Atwoli says that COTU can’t declare a strike because the housemaids aren’t yet organized, unlike in other sectors, such as tea production and horticulture. So he says he has asked the labor minister to call a meeting among government officials, his union and representatives of employers to discuss the new regulations before they are implemented.
Njeru says they are laying out strategies to enforce the law.
“The new law will not take effect overnight,” he says. “We’ll have to create awareness first.”
Among the challenges is the lack of a comprehensive database for domestic workers, Njeru says.
“We have been moving from one estate [suburb] to another to recruit housemaids, but the results so far are not encouraging,” Njeru says. “We have to get the database before we act.”
Most of the housemaids say they weren’t aware of the trade union. Instead, housemaids seek help from the bureaus that introduced them to their employers.
Katina Karimi, who operates such a bureau in downtown Nairobi, says people seeking housemaids sign an agreement with the women first. Both parties are required to contact her if the agreement is broken.
“I’m a go-between for employers and housemaids,” she says. “Whenever an employer has a problem with the housemaid, he or she is required to call me so we can resolve the problem. Same case with the housemaids.”
But Karimi says she can’t guarantee job security for the maids.
“If an employer says she wants to sack the maid, there is nothing I can do about it,” she says. “I just ensure the girl is not dismissed without being paid. I then introduce her to another client.”
Karimi says most employers she works with are not willing to pay housemaids more than 4,500 shillings, $50 USD, per month so it will be difficult to force them to pay 7,500 shillings, $83 USD, per month as the new law requires.
Philip Cheruiyot, one of her clients, says the amount is too high.
“My wife and I are teachers, and our combined salary is less than 50,000 shillings [$555 USD],” he says. “I have rent and many other bills to pay. The prices of most basic commodities has gone up.”
He says they won’t be able to afford a maid anymore.
“Asking me to pay a maid 7,500 shillings [$83 USD] is inconsiderate,” he says. “Maids will now become unaffordable for most Kenyans, a preserve for the rich.”
Karimi says that two in three Nairobi households currently have housemaids.
Nancy Wanjiru, a nurse at a private hospital, says the maids don’t deserve the higher wages because they depend on their employers for food and housing.
“My maid lives in my house, eats my food and, when sick, I have to take her to [the] hospital,” she says. “If I was to charge her 3,000 shillings [$33 USD] for housing and 300 shillings [$3 USD] every day for food, that would amount to 12,000 shillings [$133 USD] per month.”
She says that instead, she pays her maid a lower wage but offers free room and board.
“I pay her 4,500 shillings [$50 USD] and don’t charge her anything,” she says. “Labor organizations need to consider this before they enforce the new law.”
With the new law, Wanjiru says most people will be forced to bring in relatives from rural areas who are mostly poor and don’t mind working as long as they get food and shelter.
Njeru says trade unions are dedicated to making sure domestic workers are treated fairly.
“I know Kenyans are good at cutting corners,” he says. “But we shall catch them one day.”
