Kigro Recyclers Worker Cooperative

This chapter examines the Kenyan cooperative movement, highlighting its strengths and challenges. While lauded as the strongest and largest in Africa, with approximately 14 million members in 20,050 registered cooperatives in 2020, it still has low youth and women membership, and it is dominated by credit cooperatives. The chapter focuses on the emerging worker cooperative model, showcasing Kigro Recyclers, a youth-led waste management cooperative in Nairobi. Kigro Recyclers’ success demonstrates the worker cooperative model’s potential in Kenya and Africa for job creation, poverty reduction and environmental improvement. The cooperative’s challenges, such as securing capital for expansion and providing comprehensive worker benefits, are also discussed. The chapter concludes that the worker cooperative model offers a viable path to formalising Kenya’s informal workforce and promoting inclusive economic development.