A study of the role of unionised workers in Kenya, this places the
workers and their unions within the broad context of an evolving
political economy. Similar studies, often restricted to a single trade
union, have usually focused either on union-government relations or on
internal union politics. This work is distinguished by its attempt to
reveal the interrelation between these two facets of working-class life
within a peculiar type of socio-economic environment - a predominantly
peasant society governed by an elite committed to a capitalist economic
strategy, closely associated with an 'external estate' of foreign
interests, intertwined with local business concerns, and deeply involved
in clientelist politics. Professor Sandbrook demonstrates that Frantz
Fanon's sketch of the role of the unionised workers in an economically
dependent former colony is largely correct in its application to Kenya.
Top union leaders, drawn from the more privileged occupations, receiving
relatively high rewards, and understandably apprehensive of the
sanctions wielded by the ruling elite, have generally seen their role as
obtaining a larger share of the economic pie for the workers within the
capitalist political economy.
