Fred Kubai

Fredrick Polwarth Kibunja Kubai was born in 1922 in Mombasa. Working as a telegrapher in the Post and Telegraphs Department, he became an outspoken trade union organizer in colonial Nairobi.

In 1949, alongside Marxist Punjabi trade unionist Makhan Singh, Kubai co-founded the East African Trade Union Congress (EATUC), the first non-racial trade union federation in East Africa. In May 1950, they launched the monumental 19-day Nairobi General Strike. As chairman of the KAU Nairobi branch and member of the Mau Mau Central Committee, he was convicted at Kapenguria in 1953. Post-independence, he served as Assistant Minister for Labour, drafting pioneering industrial relations legislation.