Makhan Singh
1913 – 1973 Kenyan trade unionist, labour organiser
Indian-Kenyan trade unionist, a founder of militant multiracial labour organising in Kenya.
- Religion
- Sikh
- Affiliations
- Labour Trade Union of East Africa, East African Trade Union Congress
Makhan Singh was a Punjabi-born trade unionist who built the labour movement in colonial Kenya and pushed it toward open demands for independence. He was among the first to call for full independence at a public rally in 1950 and helped lead the militant East African Trade Union Congress. The colonial government detained him without trial for eleven years, one of the longest such detentions of the Emergency era. He is remembered as a pioneer of multiracial, working-class nationalism in Kenya.
Connections
- associate of Fred Kubai — Co-led militant Nairobi trade unionism.
- associate of Pio Gama Pinto — Fellow Indian-Kenyan on the anti-colonial left.
In the timeline
- 1935 Makhan Singh builds militant trade unionism central figure
- 1949 Makhan Singh and Militant Trade Unionism the pioneering unionist
- 1950 Fred Kubai and militant trade unionism in Nairobi mentioned
- 1950 The Nairobi general strike of 1950 labour leader
- 1950 Colonial authorities detain Makhan Singh without trial central figure
- 1950 The Nairobi General Strike mentioned
- 1950 Makhan Singh, pioneer of Kenya's trade unions central figure