Union on Trial: Labour Court Blocks Deregistration of KUWASE in Defence of Workers’ Rights
Introduction: When Deregistration Becomes a Weapon
In a significant legal victory for Kenya’s organised labour movement, the Employment and Labour Relations Court has issued a temporary injunction halting the attempted deregistration of the Kenya Union of Water and Sewerage Employees (KUWASE) by the Registrar of Trade Unions.
This ruling offers more than just administrative relief; it affirms a critical truth: the right of workers to form and belong to unions must not be undermined by bureaucratic tactics or opaque processes. As attacks on union organising increase across Africa, KUWASE’s case becomes a powerful example of institutional resistance, and resilience.
Who Is KUWASE and Why Does It Matter?
The Kenya Union of Water and Sewerage Employees (KUWASE) is a sector-specific union representing workers employed by water service providers across the country. These include public water companies that were created following the Water Act of 2002, which commercialised and decentralised water provision by separating it from general county employment. While presented as reforms to improve efficiency and service delivery, these steps are emblematic of a broader neoliberal agenda.
Commercialisation and decentralisation often serve as precursors to full privatisation, weakening public accountability and paving the way for market-driven control of essential services. Crucially, this restructuring has also fragmented the workforce undermining union power and enabling union-busting tactics by isolating workers under different entities, contracts, or employment terms. In effect, what appears as administrative reform is deeply political, reflecting a shift away from public ownership and collective bargaining toward profit-driven models and precarious work.
Registered in 2020 (following a name change from the National Union of Water and Sewerage Employees), KUWASE has fought for the labour rights of water utility staff; many of whom face poor working conditions, job insecurity, and underpayment despite providing essential services in health, sanitation, and environmental management.
The union has negotiated for improved wages, resisted arbitrary dismissals, and challenged irregular contract terms in an increasingly commercialised water sector. But the consequences of this shift extend beyond the workforce. Water privatisation often leads to higher costs, unequal access, and the prioritisation of profit over public good; turning a basic human right into a commodity.
This disproportionately harms the working class, the poor, and especially women, who bear the burden of water insecurity in households and communities. In treating public resources like businesses, both workers and citizens lose; through job precarity on one end and service inequality on the other.
Registrar of Trade Unions Moves to Deregister KUWASE
In early 2024, the Registrar of Trade Unions initiated steps to deregister KUWASE, citing alleged statutory non-compliance. The Registrar’s notices claimed failures in submitting required documentation, including annual returns and financial records.
KUWASE, however, disputed both the basis and process of the deregistration, arguing that it was:
Procedurally flawed, with inadequate time given for response.
Substantively unjustified, given its ongoing and active status as a registered trade union with live collective bargaining processes and legitimate membership across the country.
The union contended that the Registrar’s move posed a grave violation of Article 41 of Kenya’s Constitution, which guarantees every worker the right to form, join, and participate in the activities of a trade union. Beyond the legal breach, the deregistration of KUWASE would deal a significant blow to workers’ ability to organise, weakening their bargaining power in an already precarious and commercialised sector. It would also undermine a critical platform for worker solidarity and collective action.
For citizens, the stakes are equally high: diminishing union strength in essential services like water and sanitation not only erodes accountability and labour standards, but risks deteriorating service quality, with the most severe impacts felt by poor and marginalised communities.
The Court’s Stand: Protecting the Spirit of Organising
On May 14, 2025, the Employment and Labour Relations Court intervened, granting KUWASE a temporary injunction that blocks the Registrar from deregistering the union until a full hearing of the case is concluded.
Justice Byram Ongaya, presiding over the matter, noted that deregistration without due process would cause irreparable harm, not only to the union but to its thousands of members whose rights and protections depend on their collective strength.
He also cautioned against the weaponisation of administrative oversight, stating that disputes over union operations must respect natural justice, due process, and the primacy of workers’ constitutional rights.
Union Deregistration as a Continent-Wide Threat
While KUWASE’s case is unfolding in Nairobi, its implications are regional. Across Africa, governments and employer-friendly regulators are increasingly using deregistration, suspension, or refusal to recognise unions as ways of silencing worker voice.
In Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has repeatedly faced attempts at decertification. In Nigeria, unions such as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have had their bank accounts frozen or legal status questioned after industrial action. Even in South Africa, smaller sectoral unions report restrictive certification processes designed to stifle grassroots organising.
Such examples highlight the urgent need for clarity, worker participation in determining representation, and legal safeguards against the weaponisation of administrative procedures to undermine union organising.
Conclusion: KUWASE’s Victory Is a Collective One
This ruling is not just a procedural pause; it is a call to protect freedom of association at all costs. For KUWASE members, it means continued representation. For the labour movement, it means continued vigilance.
As global capital reshapes public services like water, unions like KUWASE are among the last lines of defence for workers and communities alike.
The court’s message is clear: trade unions are not disposable. And their rights, when defended, protect us all.
References
The Star. (2025, May 14). Reprieve to water union as Labour Court halts its deregistration. Link
Kenya Law Reports. Kenya Union of Water & Sewerage Employees v Registrar of Trade Unions; Olwalo (Interested Party) (Judicial Review E008 of 2023). Link
Constitution of Kenya (2010), Article 41 – Labour Relations. Link