Kenya: Tell SACCO that every worker has a right to join a union

My name is Joseph Ndiritu Karobia, General Secretary of the Public Transport Operators Union (PUTON) that represents road transport workers in Kenya.

We also draw membership from the informal public transport sector locally referred to as Matatu sector. I previously worked in the matatu industry rising through the ranks until when I quit to represent workers in their registered trade union PUTON.

We recruited 209 members from Kariobangi Matatu Owners Sacco (SACCO) over a period between 2015 where we had a dispute that we won at the Ministry of Labour and in the period 2021//2022, we further recruited members from the same SACCO which we again forced the union go to court, a matter that was concluded in favor of the union PUTON.

Orders were issued by the court, among which they were ordered to deduct and remit union dues for members who had subscribed to be members of the union. They did not obey the order and we took SACCO to court for contempt and disobeying court orders. They are now forcing union members to sign an affidavit claiming that they signed the union check-off forms without knowing what they were signing. Our next date in court will be on 04 October 2026 for the contempt matter.

The SACCO was squarely put by the court that it is the employer for the drivers and conductors and many other categories of workers who service the informal matatu sector.

We need your support in this matter, we need to tell the SACCO that every worker has a right to join a union, we need solidarity from global unionisable workers in this war.