Please give my most recent journal article, in the Journal of Eastern African Studies, a read! The output of our “Global Socio-Economic Rights, Local Contexts” project and a talk I gave at the British Institute in Eastern Africa back in September.
The paper describes how late-colonial Kenya saw intense debates over social security, as the state aimed to stabilise its workforce while African workers sought greater security and better conditions. A largely forgotten 1954–5 Social Security Committee brought government, humanitarian, and African trade union voices together, revealing competing visions of welfare and proposing a comprehensive pension scheme inspired by postwar British models. Although never implemented due to fiscal and political constraints, the episode highlights both the ambitions and limits that shaped Kenya’s later welfare system.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17531055.2025.2597638?src=
Histories of Kenya, Histories of Empire 