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Naivasha, Kenya – Joyce Iminza gets off an old white bus and gets on board a motorcycle taxi in Naivasha, a city rich in flowers located about 100 km northwest of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.
"Take me home. My kids are going home after school and I have to prepare dinner for them, "she says to the driver as she goes up to sit behind him.
In six minutes, she arrives in her rented house in a room and starts cooking.
Aged 36, he has been working at Naivasha flower farms for 12 years. Despite years of hard work, she struggles to support her family.
"I'm a single mother, my employer pays me $ 100 a month, it's never enough to pay my house rent, buy food and pay school fees, I end up borrowing again," Iminza said. .
She is not alone.
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| Joyce Iminza has worked in flower farms for 12 years and is still unable to support her family. [Osman Mohamed Osman/Al Jazeera] |
According to Kenya Flower Council, an badociation that represents the cut flower producers, Iminza is among more than 90 000 floriculture workers employed by more 300 exporters of Kenya.
Thanks to mild weather all year round, Kenya is the leading exporter of African flowers, with an average of 360 tonnes exported per day.
It is the fourth largest producer of cut flowers after the Netherlands, Colombia and Ecuador.
In 2017, according to the Directorate of Horticultural Crops (HCD), a public company, the floral industry Kenya earned 823 million dollars, with Europe a major market.
With Demand for flowers soaring on occasions such as Valentine's Day, the area is one of the main sources of foreign currency.
Iminza says that the government, which is responsible for regulation, ignores the interests of the workers of flower growers.
"Kenyan labor laws do not favor us at all as workers, our employers take advantage of these policies to continue to pay us all that is stipulated, so our lives are literally the same, no matter how many of years worked., "she says.
The minimum wage for a unskilled farm worker is about $ 65 a month.
This small minimum wage is attracting large cut flower companies to Kenya, said Ferdinand Juma, chairman of the Kenya Union of Plantation and Agriculture Workers (KPAWU) in Naivasha.
"The government thinks investors are doing us a favor because they come and employ mbades of people, whereas fundamentally, these people are leveraging cheap labor through policies. of our investor-friendly government. "
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| Ferdinand Juma, President of Kenya, President of the Union of Plantation and Agriculture Workers, says a low minimum wage is prompting large cut flower companies to travel to Kenya [Osman Mohamed Osman/Al Jazeera] |
Juma, now 52 years old and the father of seven, worked for 13 years cutting flowers before joining KPAWU.
"When I was a cut flower worker, my colleagues and I never knew how successful this industry was," he says. "[We want to] make sure the workers are informed. "
Through the union, Juma has already negotiated better working conditions for more than 30,000 flower farm employees in Naivasha.
But the main challenge is, he says, that many people accept these jobs because they are unemployed and desperate.
Leonard Karani, 50, is one example.
"I dropped out of high school because of insufficient tuition," he says. "I had a hard time finding a permanent job before landing this one."
Karani worked for 18 years for several flower companies.
His monthly salary is $ 110 – not enough to feed his family.
"Our lives are defined by debt," says Karani. This is the only way for me to support my family. If I had other skills, at least I would look for other jobs. I do not have options. "
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| Leonard Karani, a flower farm worker and father of six, said that he did not have enough money to continue his education. [Osman Mohamed Osman/Al Jazeera] |
Cyprian Onyony, a lawyer, explains that most labor laws and policies were adopted during the colonial period.
Although much of the legislation was repealed in the following years, labor legislation relating to wage regulation has not been reviewed for a long time, he said.
"This problem can be solved in the first place by the Kenyan parliament through the adoption of minimum wage bills that can be revised on time .As business flourishes, unskilled workers in floriculture are able to experience success.High yields should general terms for employees, "says Onyany.
Back in Naivasha, Iminza, the single mother who works for $ 100 a month, finishes preparing her children's dinner.
"I have lived a life of debt – year after year, I have to take care of these children all by myself, I just pray that things will change in the future," she says. "That's all I can do."
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