When children were recognised as unionisable workers

A Kikuyu woman picking coffee during the colonial period. [File, Standard]

There was a time when it was legal for multinational companies to employ children to do back-breaking chores for as little as Sh1.80 per day.

This may sound like a pre-colonial arrangement, but 57 years ago Kenya’s first government was okay with children slaving away for peanuts so that they could sustain the country’s main foreign exchange earner, coffee.