At 5:12 a.m., Lynette is already awake, staring at her phone screen in the dim light.
Three apps glow back at her: Bolt, Remotasks, and Glovo.
She is waiting to see which one will offer work first.
If a ride requests pings, she will borrow her cousin’s motorbike and chase peak-hour bonuses.
If Glovo activates, she will navigate morning traffic with grocery deliveries.
If neither stirs, she will switch to her laptop and label AI data for $0.06 per task—the digital drudgery no one else wants.
She’s 27, a university graduate, juggling three platforms full-time, yet employed by none of them.
> “People say gig work is freedom,” she tells me,
“but the algorithm decides when I eat.”

The Gig Economy as a Patchwork of Survival

Like most gig workers in Nairobi, Lynette does not have one job—she has a mosaic of apps.
In Kenya, about 1.2 million people, roughly 4.7 % of the national workforce, are estimated to participate in gig-platform work.
In Africa more broadly, the gig economy market was valued at about US$556.7 billion in 2024.
In emerging markets, gig work is not a side hustle. It is the lifeline for millions promised “flexibility,” but trapped in a system of erratic income, unending hours, and daily uncertainty:
“Will I earn enough today to get by?”
A strong day might yield $9–$12.
A quiet one brings nothing, not from laziness, but because no platform assigns tasks.
> “There is no salary. Just chances,” she says.
“And every chance depends on the platform, not on me.”

The Algorithm Is the Manager

Gig workers don’t negotiate contracts, wages, or workloads.
They lack HR support, colleagues, or legal safeguards.
Their boss is faceless code.
An app update can slash pay by 30%.
A poor customer rating can bar access for a week.
A GPS glitch labels you unreliable.
A 48-hour break deems you “inactive,” bumping you down the queue.
No appeals.
No explanations.
Just: “Your account has been reviewed. Access is limited.”
> “I have never met a person who controls my income,” Lynette says.
“Only a screen.”
According to the Swedish researcher Vili Lehdonvirta of the Oxford Internet Institute, “Platform work reproduces power asymmetries: the worker has the clock, the algorithm has the keys.”

The Corporate Story vs. the Lived Reality

Tech companies frame gigs work as “digital empowerment” in places like East Africa, Southeast Asia, and South Asia.
They tout:
Flexible hours
Equal opportunities
The chance to “be your own boss”
Earnings in dollars, spent in local currency
What they omit:
No benefits
No healthcare
No guaranteed pay
No paid leave
No safety nets
No employee status
If she is injured on delivery, she pays out of pocket.
If her phone breaks, she is temporarily unemployed.
If fuel prices rise, her profit margin collapses instantly.
> “It is called freedom because we carry all the risk,” she says.

The Currency Trap

When Lynette labels data online, she earns in USD on paper, but platforms convert at internal rates always below market value.
A $0.06 task shrinks to about $0.04 in her wallet.
Her labor profits precisely because it is in a low-wage, tax-regulation zone.
The gig economy is not truly global, it is globally skewed.
Tasks shunned by U.S. workers flow to Kenyans, Filipinos, or Indians.
This digital realm forges not just jobs, but hidden hierarchies of labor.
Unlike factories, it has no physical walls.
The inequality hides behind sleek branding, dashboards, and payout interfaces.

“Be Your Own Boss” Was Always a Marketing Line

Gig workers in emerging markets are dubbed “partners,” “contractors,” “freelancers,” and “entrepreneurs.”
But the reality is stark:
They cannot set prices.
They cannot haggle rates.
They cannot select clients.
They can be deactivated anytime, without recourse.
They are not independent, they are tethered to platforms that owe them zilch.
> “I work more hours than someone in an office,” Lynette says.
“But I do not exist on paper. I have no job. I just have work.”

The Future Is Coming; But for Whom?

Tech leaders proclaim the gig model as work is inevitable evolution.
Perhaps it is.
But if that future means no stability, no protections, no bargaining power, and wages dictated by Silicon Valley code,
then it is not progressing.
It is engineered precarity at scale.
AI won’t displace gig workers.
It will oversee them.
And as long as emerging markets are viewed as reservoirs of cheap, compliant, unseen labor, change remains elusive.
The workers persist.
The platforms expand.
And people like Lynette keep refreshing screens, awaiting the app’s verdict on their daily earnings.

The Quiet Line That Should Not Be Quiet

Before we end the call, I ask Lynette what she wants the world to grasp about her life.
She pauses.
> “I don’t want praise,” she says.
“I just want the work to count as real work.”
Another beat.
> “I want to feel like a worker. Not a button someone presses.”
Because the Gig Economy Is not Free, Someone Pays for Flexibility
And in much of the world, that someone is a woman like Lynette, waiting for three apps to decide if she makes rent today.