dc.description.abstract | Child and female labour is an aspect of labour in general which has
been ignored by Kenyan historians. The role of women and children in
development and maintenance of the colonial economy has only been
attempted by the sociologists. However, the sociologists tend to discuss
it in over-general terms. Child and female labour is an integral part of
labour in general and cannot be discussed in isolation. Thus, the study
is carried out within the framework of labour problems and policies in
colonial Kenya.
In the pre-capitalist Kikuyu society, women and children were
important. Exploitation was minimized by the fact that nearly everybody
had access to the wealth he or she had helped to create. The knowledge children got through work was more important than the work they did.
With the coming of the Europeans, there were new developments in the
Kikuyu society. Land alienation, introduction of host of taxes and the
creation of powerful colonial chiefs created a class of labourers which
included women and children.
The invitation of the soldier settlers after World War II resulted in
more of the alienated land being brought under cultivation. This led to
a severe shortage of labour. With the help of colonial administration and
unfavourable colonial legislations, women and children were increasingly
brought into the labour force.
Child and female Labour was even more extensively used during
difficult years such as the emergency period. Women and children from
poor families were already used in providing Labour for wage and therefore
many of them volunteered to do manual work. Furthermore, the economic
difficulties of the 1940s and 50s also posed a challenge for survival and
women and children responded to them by aggressively entering into the
wage Labour,
Therefore, child and female Labour was extensively used by the
colonial settlers in Kiambu. This was necessitated by first, the shortage
of able-bodied men to work on the settler farms and secondly, the monetary
cheapness of women and children. | en |