“Kenya’s port workers fight for fair wages amid repression” 9 February 2025

Kenya’s private port workers, also called Bangaizas, in the coastal city of Mombasa are fighting against severe exploitation and oppressive working conditions despite their critical role in the supply chain. In recent weeks, these workers have been organizing to demand that employers and industry brokers comply with the 2023 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) which sets rates for daily labor, overtime, Sunday work, and waiting hours. In the last week of January, thousands of private port workers at the Changamwe and Shimanzi warehouses staged mass protests to demand employers pay them at agreed upon rates in compliance with the CBA. However, workers were violently repressed by the Kenyan police who were reportedly deployed at the request of warehouse owners and contractors. The police presence was seemingly intended to suppress their industrial action, with officers intimidating workers and preventing those dissatisfied with their pay from approaching the premises. This crackdown has been accompanied by violent attacks on workers by hired goons, further entrenching fear and impunity within the industry.

As per the CBA which took effect on February 1, 2023, daily labor rates are Ksh 883 (USD 6.8) for an eight-hour shift, increasing to Ksh 918 (USD 7.1) in 2024. Prior attempts by workers to demand compliance with the agreement have been met with threats of job loss, while efforts to organize industrial action have been systematically suppressed through court indictments on fabricated charges such as illegal assembly, trespassing, and incitement to violence. Kenya’s port workers, engaged in docking support services and warehouse operations, primarily rely on daily contracts or piece-rate wages, despite being essential to the smooth functioning of the port and the broader logistics industry. Most of these workers are employed by companies in shipping, clearing and forwarding, freight, logistics, and warehousing, but earn meager wages that barely sustain them, leaving no opportunity to save and experience economic stability. The companies that profit from their labor through marine pilotage, tugboat assistance, stevedoring, cargo surveying, waste management, tally clerking, bulking, blending, sorting, loading, and offloading continue to exploit them while disregarding their basic labor rights…