The plight of pregnant women in flower farms

Days after delivering a baby boy, Zipporah Kemunto was back to her job at a Naivasha flower farm in May, 2017.

She was assigned supposedly "light" duties in the cold room packing flowers for long hours. 

"In September, I began experiencing back pains. I went to Naivasha District Hospital. I was x-rayed, the doctors told me that the cold and bending had affected my health. I was prescribed to some medication and given a letter to take back to work, requesting my bosses not to give me any work which involved me bending or standing for far too long.”

 Despite the letter, back at work, Kemunto was assigned duties sorting flowers. Upon complaining, Kemunto’s bosses told her she didn’t want to work anymore. Being the sole breadwinner of her family of two children following the passing on of her husband, Kemunto had to keep working.

            “Even after being taken care of by a physiotherapist in early 2018, nothing improved. On the doctors’ recommendation, I had to buy a Ksh15,000-worth belt to tie up my spinal cord with. This didn’t lessen my pain at work and my bosses were still negative. Surprisingly, I knew of other jobs I could comfortably do at the flower farm,” Kemunto says.    

More pain

            “When my left leg began aching, I went to the hospital again. I was prescribed a medical stocking, which I began wearing. There wasn’t much change due to the cold at work. In April, 2019, my hand began feeling as if dead and numb. By the time I quit work completely in July, one side of my body was almost dead. I couldn’t even lift my baby or do laundry or spin ugali. I went for leave off work, but I could only stay at home because my body was weak. The doctor finally advised me to quit work.”

  The doctor wrote yet another letter, specifying the recommendations. When Kemunto took the letter to her former company’s human resources office, she was sent to the company doctor, who took advantage of Kemunto’s illiteracy to write a letter saying she left work at will. She only discovered the truth at the National Social Security Fund (NSSF). It actually meant she won’t be paid a cent, because, according to the company, she was no longer the firm’s employee.

            “At NSSF, I was advised to go home and wait for my retirement age to start earning pension. When I went back to work to ask for a service fee – before then I had only three working months to clock five years. Before that I had worked temporarily for two years, but permanently I had worked for four years and nine months. I told them I didn’t willingly quit work, especially given that I needed money to resume medication.”

“I was told that I would be paid for only one and a half months of travelling allowance. But at the account’s office, I was told I won’t be paid because in July I hadn’t worked for three days. I told them I had been on leave. But they said if they were to subtract everything, they would pay me at most Sh4,000. I refused. The leaders of my flower farm union promised they would see to my being paid, but so far nothing has happened,” Kemunto says, adding that she was being paid a monthly salary of Sh10,700, which included a Sh2,700 house allowance.

Same case

A security guard in one of the flower farms agreed to be interviewed on condition of anonymity. At the time of the interview in Naivasha, Alice Wanjiku (not her real name), had just come from work and was still in her uniform. She joined the company in 2013 and got pregnant in January 2015.

“When I was pregnant, I almost quit work. It was proving hard to me, waking up at 4:30am, being at the stage by 5am, getting to the company by 5:45am and relieving the night guard by 6pm. I went to work for six months straight, then from there, when my pregnancy became bigger, my reporting time was moved to 7am. I was given a three-month maternity leave when I was eight months pregnant. This wasn’t a very good thing, because one month was wasted on waiting to give birth, meaning you leave the child for work aged only two months. Though now when I resumed work, I was allowed to report at around 8am.”

            But this means she didn’t have enough time to exclusively breastfeed her baby. She had to employ the services of a local baby care. The mother of two other children, whose husband passed on, says her family wanted her to go back to her Kisumu village.

            “With my current salary of around Sh10,000, it’s impossible to save. The long working hours don’t also let me take side jobs. If you complain to the company, they will just tell you to step aside for someone else who really needs work.”

The rights of pregnant mothers

            According to a flower farm activist in Naivasha, most companies never consider the plight of the pregnant female worker. Angela Okinda (not her real name) further says pregnant women are only permitted leave to go deliver.

            “If we adhere to the Kenyan constitution, an unborn baby should be allocated time to rest. But a pregnant woman who works normal hours doesn’t have enough time for the baby to rest. I would say, during lunchtime, a pregnant woman should go home till the following day; such that when time to deliver comes, she has energy to push through.”

According to Okinda, for a pregnant woman to be assigned light duties, she must go to the Naivasha District Hospital. But only if the baby's condition can’t allow the mother to keep working normally.

“If you as a pregnant woman isn’t aware such a necessary privilege exists, you will work like any other worker. In several companies, pregnant or breastfeeding mothers report an hour later after the others. But then they work up to 4pm like the others. It would be great if the law clearly states a baby shouldn’t take too long before being breastfed.”

The Ministry of Health advises mothers should breastfeed their babies exclusively for six months. However, many mothers do not know how to express and store breast milk.

According to the Health Act 2017 employers are required to grant all nursing employees break intervals for nursing in addition to the regular times off for meals, to breastfeed or express milk.

The nursing break includes the time it takes an employee to get to and from the lactation station and is counted as paid working hours provided that such interval is not more than a total of one hour for every eight hour working period.

Employers are further required to establish Lactation stations in the workplace which shall be adequately provided with necessary equipment and facilities including hand washing equipment, refrigerates or appropriate cooling facilities, electrical outlets for breast pumps, a small table, and comfortable seats. This does not happen in most flower farms.

“Given that most women working in flower farms aren’t literate, I educate them on their rights and the law. I advise them, once you feel too unwell to continue with work, get out for some fresh air and no boss would push you around," Okinda says.

"I’m happy many have taken that initiative. The Human Resource Manager (HR) has even given the mothers a resting place. This can be credited to the regular HR-worker meetings we hold. But there are some other companies which treat their pregnant working women badly.”