Paper short abstract:

Starting from a case study of the labour force employed in flower farms, the paper revisits the labour policies and the models of economic development followed in Kenya before and after independence.

Paper long abstract:

Starting from the case study of floriculture, this paper readdresses the general question of economic dualism in Kenya. Like during the colonial rule, today capitalist accumulation is achieved by forcing peasant labour force out of the subsistence sector to produce agricultural exports of low added value. However, the outflow of labour force is no more the direct outcome of land expropriation, discriminatory or coercive laws and taxes, but of deficit producers' economic necessity. In that dual economy, labour cost minimization is a myopic strategy from a macroeconomic point of view: by depressing remittances, it implies food recession, which inflates the wage rate and causes the fall of the rate of profit. Promoting the development of the informal non-agricultural economy might contribute to resolve this contradiction in the process of accumulation.