“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new.” – Socrates
On the 11th of March 2020, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesushe, the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), uttered the most dreaded words since the Great Plague of Europe.
“WHO has been assessing this outbreak (Covid-19) around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction. We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterised as a pandemic,” he said in a press statement.
With those words, what began with an outbreak in Wuhan, China officially became a global pandemic, one that would change completely the traditional view of work and delivery of goods and services.
The year 2020 became the defining year for Kenya’s gig economy. As the government moved to impose travel bans and shutdowns to limit the spread of the virus – a variation of the strain of coronaviruses known as SARS-Cov – business struggled to stay afloat.
But even in the darkest of those moments unleashed by the virus, others were adapting to take advantage of new opportunities. Kenya is a regional and African leader in digitalisation of business and services. The Internet and its allied technologies, therefore, offered a platform for enterprising innovators to tap into the increasing reliance on digital technologies for delivery of good and services at the height of the pandemic.
Covid-19 had not only reinforced the need for people to be able to work from home, but also opened the Internet as a dynamic channel for Kenyans to procure goods and services based on greater freedom of choice and flexibility.
A hybrid world
The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated a number of workforce trends, particularly among white-collar workers, who are easily transferable to remote scenarios. It redefined the term “essential worker,” as well as the social and psychological contract between employers and employees, who now have very different expectations than three years ago.
What employers are responsible for and what employees are willing to accept has changed the game. The pandemic reshuffled the deck and shifted the conversation among professionals who realised that constant travel and separation from family wasn’t the only way to make a living. Companies and organisations are coming to terms with business as usual in what has evolved into a hybrid world.
The pandemic challenged and reshaped the gig economy, redefining the status of remote workers. Freelancers or freelance pools are making companies and organisations more productive and flexible. It is both a cost-saving and practical tool and “freelancers” or “remote workers” are exploding alongside cultural change and adaptation.
Employers realised that outsourcing non-core functions to freelancers or freelance pools boosts productivity and flexibility and saves costs.
Collaboration at work
In a gig economy, self-directed and smaller teams within an organisation or company, work with autonomy but are interconnected and constantly in communication with one another. But to avoid creating mini silos, they all work from a common blueprint as work moves from team to team.
There are multiple tools to support collaborative work. For example, Google sheets are available for all members of a team to see and repurpose as necessary.
Collaboration technologies are helping too. Email is no longer the primary means of collaborating Video conferencing apps like Zoom and Webex have added to the platforms available to facilitate real time collaboration.
Thanks to the Internet and social media channels, workers in the gig economy can also easily upskill without waiting to enroll in formal training programmes run by their employers.
Unlike in the full-time traditional workplace environments where reporting rules create the illusion of control, in the gig economy, this has taken a paradigm shift where outcomes are measured rather than input by setting clear goals.
Leaders in the gig economy workspace do not need to see the workers, to be sure they are working.
The virtual workplace is opening up an entirely new landscape. Workers in this space no longer have to live near or close to their employers, thus creating new markets for companies offering health, travel insurance, food and vehicle services for freelance and distributed workers.
This is the “new normal”. Things are changing at an incredible pace. Growth is no longer gradual, but about massive changes and the pace increases every year. Organisations and individuals must therefore adopt the new normal. Things will never slow down.
According to Jacob Morgan, author of “The Future of Work in 2014”, gig economy workers don’t have to be chained to a desk from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. but are free to work when and where they want. They don’t have to follow a single career path, but can instead choose one that is customised to their needs. They can control their learning and share their skills with others.
“These are just a few ways employees are changing. These changes aren’t just minor surface-level adjustments—they are seismic shifts in how employees view their purpose, future, and career. Going forward, the divide between companies hiring employees of the past and those hiring employees of the future will grow even wider,” says Morgan.
The gig economy offers workers the freedom to pursue multiple customised career paths or ladders:
Because of the restrictions of Covid-19, the image of informal labour began to change, as more and more businesses in the FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) sector found themselves turning to players in the business process outsourcing sector (BPO) for support.
In the process, many previously informal jobs and markets became formal by moving online. This shift is important because of the Kenya Vision 2030 goal of increasing the number of stable employment opportunities for the youth.
In many ways the future of work is already here with us. It is now practically impossible for companies to ignore technology anymore. Words like Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things have been mainstreamed.
Meanwhile, mobile technology has facilitated digital financial transactions making online banking a seamless affair. Today, a business without an M-PESA option for mobile payments struggles to keep up. Technology is no longer just ‘nice to have’. It is essential.
Workers in the gig economy tend to enjoy more freedom, higher income and better remuneration and work-life balance compared to traditional employment. They are also better placed to boost their soft skills.
Government efforts to grow the gig economy and create jobs for the youth under the Big 4 Agenda focused on enabling the growth of a strong business process outsourcing sector (BPO) that allows Kenyans to sell their skills on a global level.
With increased urbanisation and a growing sedentary lifestyle in Kenya, there is also growing demand for processed food, tourism, retail and hospitality services, creating a stronger base for growth of the BPO sector. By improving their soft skills, offline gig economy workers can be more productive and earn more.
The sources of work are slowly shifting away from informal labour towards digital platforms.
CGAP, a global development organisation in its report, “The future of work in Africa”, says: “It’s time we recognised the truth about the future of work in Africa: it isn’t in the growth of full-time formal sector jobs. The future of work will be people working multiple gigs with “somewhat formal” entities. This is already true, and it will be for the foreseeable future.”
While experience is important in a gig economy, workers’ technical and management skills and judgement count more. What you actually do is more important than your resume or the school or college you attended.
Changing face of in-person work
While in-person work is still very much necessary, it is not the same in a gig economy because technology ensures workers are connected to their offices all the time. They can report to the office for a few hours for in-person meetings or other appointments but still work from home. Thus, the concept of work-life balance changes to work-life integration. The worker sets boundaries to ensure efficiency and accountability but has more control over his or her time.
“The role for in-person work doesn’t mean that you’re going to be in an office nine to five. It might mean you show up for a couple of hours a day or it might mean you show up once or twice a week -it might mean any number of things. That’s what workplace flexibility is all about. Work is no longer a place that you go to work, it is something that you carry with you; You can pretty much get anything done on your smartphone or on a laptop that you can take with you. So, technology is pushing this forward. So that’s another significant evolution that we’re seeing,” writes future of work expert, Jacob Morgan.
Because they own their own equipment (laptops, phones, cameras, microphones and son on) and can access the necessary work software easily online it is just as easy to get stuff done inside organizations as it is outside them. There is also less concentration on employee input, and more on output.
Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) and computer science, which focuses on the use of data and algorithms to imitate the way that humans learn, gradually improving its accuracy.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is already embedded in Kenya’s private sector, but much less so in government. AI is a disruptor and transformer, adding value to different businesses including logistics, transportation, healthcare, industrial manufacturing and finance.
Companies like UTU which apply machine learning to create trust infrastructure are rapidly growing in the market. UTU is targeting different platforms like taxi-hailing apps e.g. Taxify, Uber, and Little Cab to bridge the trust gap between the service provider and the customer.
Much of the groundwork on the government’s policy regarding AI and machine learning is based on the report of the Distributed Ledgers Technology and Artificial Intelligence Taskforce of 2018.
Chaired by Prof Bitange Ndemo, members included Stephen Chege Rotich, then the Director of Corporate Affairs at Safaricom, Juliana Rotich, a consultant and technology entrepreneur, John Gitau, a technical advisor and engineer at Cisco Systems Global Service Provider, John Walubengo, a lecturer and ICT consultant at the Multimedia University and Lesley Mbogo, a founder of GoBEBA Limited, former head of products at Amazon Web Services. Mbogo was also former head of mobile platforms at M-KOPA Solar.
Other members of the taskforce were Elizabeth Ondula, a research softeare engineer and Internet of Things (IoT) specialist at IBM Research Africa; Fred Michuki, the former head of commercial banking at Standard Chartered Bank and current managing director of Mobile Financial Solutions (MFS); Michael Onyango, former County Minister for Communication and IT at the County Government of Kisumu and consultant on digital technologies; Martin Murungi, a cybersecurity consultant; Charity Wayua, senior manager, IBM Research Africa; Daniel Obam, CEO National Communications Secretariat; Sachin Kamath, ICT expert and consultant, Africa Development Bank and Mahmoud Noor, chairman of Swahilipot Hub, Mombasa and a consultant with SEACOM.
The focus of the taskforce was application of AI and Machine Learning to the four pillars of the Big 4 Agenda — Affordable Healthcare, Food Security, Manufacturing, and Housing;
In summary, the report recommended that:
- The government consolidate Kenya’s status as a regional and global leader in uptake of ICT by reviewing the regulatory ecosystem to promote innovation and embrace of AI.
- That AI and blockchain be adopted by Government to improve transparency of financial and other services and thereby aid the fight against corruption.
- The government invest in infrastructure that enables use of AI and Machine Learning technologies.
- The government educate the public on the benefits of AI and Machine Learning for society.
The value of AI and Machine Learning technologies is best seen in application of data analytics, efficiency in decision-making, and predictive analysis.
As part of the implementation of the report, the government has already set up the National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS), dubbed Huduma Namba.
The Data Protection Act, 2019 came into force on 25th November, 2019 and is now the primary statute on data protection in Kenya. It gives effect to Article 31 c) and d) of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 (right to privacy).
Also in force are:
- The Data Protection (General) Regulations, 2021 (the General Regulations);
- The Data Protection (Registration of Data Controllers and Data Processors) Regulations, 2021 (the Registration Regulations)
- The Data Protection (Complaints Handling Procedure and Enforcement) Regulations, 2021 (the Complaints Regulations).
- The Data Protection (Civil Registration) Regulations, 2020 (the “Regulations”).