Kenyan tea and coffee cooperatives step up fight against child labour
NAIROBI, April 23, 2026 — Cooperatives in Kenya’s tea and coffee sectors have joined a nationwide drive to combat child labour, as part of broader efforts by the government and development partners to eradicate the practice.
A joint 2025 report by the International Labour Organization [ILO] and United Nations United Nations Children’s Fund [UNICEF] found that Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for nearly two-thirds of all child labour cases globally, with the prevalence rising between 2012 and 2016. Launched in 2023, the Accel Africa Project, an ILO initiative backed by the Dutch government — aims to accelerate the elimination of child labour across the continent.
Now in its second phase, Accel is adopting a systems-based approach that tackles the root causes of child labour, including poverty, low incomes, informality and weak institutional capacity within agricultural value chains.
With cooperatives playing a central role in Kenya’s tea and coffee industries, the project is focusing on strengthening them as key agents in preventing child labour. In March 2026, Accel conducted a 14-day training-of-trainers [ToT] programme involving 52 participants drawn from county cooperative departments, the Cooperative University of Kenya, Solidaridad, and cooperative unions across four counties.
The training emphasised practical skills in governance, management and inclusive development, alongside the development of concrete action plans to support farmers and other cooperative stakeholders at grassroots level.
“Before this training, we focused mainly on production and marketing,” said Dorine Chepkemoi, a cooperative officer from Kericho County. “Now we understand how cooperative governance links directly to child labour prevention. We can support farmers not just to earn more, but to protect their children.”
Inclusion — particularly of women and young people in leadership and decision-making — is also a key pillar of the initiative.
Doreen Makena, a delegate from Meru County, noted: “When incomes are low, families sometimes rely on children to help on farms. But when cooperatives are well managed and farmers earn better returns, children can stay in school.”
The ILO says the training programme is designed to cascade knowledge throughout the tea and coffee supply chain.
“By strengthening cooperative systems and building the capacity of local service providers, the ILO and its partners are advancing a sustainable, systems-based approach to eliminating child labour in Kenya’s tea and coffee sectors,” the organisation said.
“Cooperatives play a transformative role in this effort by promoting child-labour-free practices, improving household incomes, raising awareness, supporting youth employment, and facilitating access to social protection.”
The organisation also highlighted cooperative development tools such as Think.coop, which help integrate child labour prevention into cooperative systems and operations.
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