Fairwork Kenya Ratings 2022: Towards Regulating the Platform Economy

This second Fairwork report for Kenya continues to analyse digital labour platforms in a country where policy shift has been very slow even as the labour market continues to grow. Within the last two years, the industry has experienced the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as an election year that exposed the precarious situations that workers faced. The cost-of-living crisis has had an impact on all sectors of the economy and especially those that offer services that are not considered basic needs. Platform workers are affected directly and have experienced a significant impact on their livelihoods. With the rise of food and essential goods and fuel costs, platform workers have had to work longer hours or quit the industry altogether in order for it to make financial sense.

Our report looks at nine of Kenya’s digital labour platforms against five Principles of Fair Work —namely, fair pay, fair conditions, fair contracts, fair management, and fair representation—giving each a fairness rating out of 10. Both Glovo and Little top the Kenya 2022 table with scores of four points each, followed by SweepSouth and Uber with two points each, Bolt with one point, and Jumia Food, Uber Eats, Indriver, and Wasili, who do not score any points at all. While the report highlights some positive changes, it also calls for platforms to improve the overall conditions for their workers.