This is the version of this Act as it was from 9 November 2007 to 17 March 2020. Read the latest available version.
Occupational Safety and Health Act
Related documents
- Is amended by 24th Annual Supplement
- Is amended by Business Laws (Amendment) Act, 2020

LAWS OF KENYA
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ACT
CAP. 236A
- Published in Kenya Gazette Vol. CIX—No. 81 on 9 November 2007
- Assented to on 22 October 2007
- Commenced on 26 October 2007
Part I – PRELIMINARY
1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Occupational Safety and Health Act, 2007.2. Interpretation
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—“air pollution” means air contaminated by substances whatever their physical state, which are harmful to health or otherwise dangerous;“article for use at work” means—(a)any plant designed for use or operation (whether exclusively or not) by persons at a workplace; and(b)any article designed for use as a component in such plant;“biological monitoring” means a planned programme of periodic collection and analysis of body fluid, tissues, excreta or exhaled air in order to detect and quantify the exposure to or absorption of any substance or organism by persons;“bodily injury” includes injury to health;“class or description” in relation to workplaces, includes a group of workplaces described by reference to a locality;“code of practice” includes a standard, a specification and any other documentary form of practical guidance;“competent person” in relation to any duty or function, means a person who has adequate training, relevant qualifications and experience to enable him to perform that duty or function;“Council” means the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health established under section 27;“court” means a magistrate’s court;“Director” means the Director of Occupational Safety and Health Services appointed under section 23;“driving belt” includes any driving strap or rope;“employee” means a person who works under a contract of employment and related expressions shall be construed accordingly;“exposure” means the amount of a workplace agent that has reached an individual worker (external dose) or has been absorbed into the individual worker (absorbed dose);“fume” includes gas or vapour;“general register” means the register kept in a workplace as required under section 122;“highly flammable liquid” means any liquid, liquid solution, emulsion or suspension which gives off a flammable vapour at a temperature of less than 32 degrees centigrade;“improvement notice” means a notice issued under section 36 of this Act;“machinery” means any article or combination of articles assembled, arranged or connected and which is used or intended to be used for converting any form of energy to performing work, or which is used or intended to be used, whether incidental thereto or not, for developing, receiving, storing, containing, confining, transforming, transmitting, transferring or controlling any form of energy;“maintained” means maintained in an efficient state, in an efficient working order and in good repair;“major hazard installation” means an installation—(a)where more than the prescribed quantity of any substance is or may be kept, whether permanently or temporarily; or(b)where any substance is produced, processed, used, handled or stored in such a form that it has the potential to cause a major incident;“major incident” means an occurrence of catastrophic proportions resulting from the use of plant or machinery or from activities at a workplace;“medical surveillance” means a planned programme of periodic examination, which may include clinical examinations, biological monitoring or medical tests of persons employed by a designated health practitioner or by an occupational medical practitioner;“Minister” means the minister for the time being responsible for labour matters;“noise” means all sound energy, which can result in hearing impairment or be harmful to health or otherwise dangerous;“occupational hygiene” means the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, monitoring and control of conditions arising in or from the workplace, which may cause illness or adverse health effects to persons;“occupational safety and health officer” means any officer appointed under section 26 and includes the Director appointed under section 23;“occupier” means the person or persons in actual occupation of a workplace, whether as the owner or not and includes an employer;“owner” means the person for the time being receiving the rents or profits of premises whether on his own account or as agent or trustee of another person, or who would receive the rents and profits if the premises were leased;“plant” includes any equipment, gear, machinery, apparatus or appliance or any part thereof;“premises” includes any place and, in particular includes—(a)any vehicle, vessel aircraft or hovercraft;(b)any installation on land including the foreshore and land intermittently covered by water, any offshore installation or any other installation whether floating, or resting on seabed or the subsoil thereof, or resting on other land covered with water or the subsoil thereof;(c)any tent or movable structure;“prime mover” means every engine, motor or other appliance which provides mechanical energy derived from steam, water, wind, electricity, the combustion of fuel or other source;“process” includes the use of any locomotive;“prohibition notice” means a notice issued under section 37;“risk” means the probability of occurrence of an adverse effect from a substance on people or the environment combined with the magnitude of the consequence of that adverse effect;“safety and health advisor” means any person who holds a minimum qualification of a certificate in occupational safety and health from a recognised institution and has at least five years proven practical experience in that field;“sanitary conveniences” includes urinals, water-closets, earth-closets, privies, ash pits and any similar convenience;“self-employed person” means an individual who works for gain or reward other-wise than under a contract of employment, whether or not he employs others;“steam boiler” means any closed vessel in which for any purpose, steam is generated under pressure greater than atmospheric pressure, and includes any economizer used to heat water being fed to any such vessel, and any superheated used for heating steam;“substance” means any natural or artificial matter or material whether in solid or liquid form or in the form of a gas or vapour;“supplier” means a person who provides articles or substances by way of sale, lease, hire or hire-purchase, whether as principal or agent;“transmission machinery” means every shaft, wheel, drum, pulley, system of fast and loose pulleys, coupling, clutch, driving-belt or other devices by which the motion of a prime mover is transmitted to or received by any machine or appliance;“user” in relation to plant or machinery, means the person who uses plant or machinery for his own benefit or who has the right of control over the use of plant or machinery, but does not include a leaser of, or any person employed in connection with, that plant or machinery;“vibration” means mechanical energy transmitted to a person’s body from a source of oscillations and is harmful to health or otherwise dangerous;“workplace” includes, any land, premises, location, vessel or thing, at, in, upon, or near which, a worker is, in the course of employment;“workroom” means any room or cubicle in which work is done by persons employed.3. Application of Act
4. Approval of codes of practice by Director
5. Use of approved codes of practice in criminal proceedings
Part II – GENERAL DUTIES
6. Duties of occupiers
7. Duty to prepare a safety and health policy statement
8. Discrimination against employee, etc.
9. Safety and health committees
10. Duty not to charge employees for things done or provided
11. Safety and health audits
12. Duties of self-employed persons
13. Duties of employee
14. Duty to report any dangerous situation
15. Duty not to interfere with or misuse things provided pursuant to certain provisions
A person who wilfully interferes with or misuses any means, appliance, convenience or other thing provided or done in the interests of safety, health and welfare in pursuance of this Act commits an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to both.16. Prohibition against creation of hazards
17. General duties of occupier and self-employed to persons other than their employees
18. Duties of an occupier of a place of work to persons other than his employees
19. General duty of persons in control of certain premises in relation to harmful emissions into atmosphere
20. Duties of designers, manufacturers, importers, etc., with regard to articles and substances for use at work
21. Notice of accidents and dangerous occurrences
22. Notification of occupational diseases
Part III – ADMINISTRATION
23. The Director
24. Research and related activities
25. Collection of occupation safety and health statistics
In order to further the purposes of this Act, the Director shall develop and maintain an effective programme of collection, compilation and analysis of occupational safety and health statistics which shall cover work injuries and illnesses including all disabling, serious, or significant injuries and illnesses, whether or not involving loss of time from work, other than minor injuries requiring only first aid treatment and which do not involve medical treatment, loss of consciousness, restriction of work or motion, or transfer to another job.26. Appointment of occupational safety and health officers
27. Establishment of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health
28. Membership of the Council
29. Annual report
As soon as practical, but within three months after the end of each financial year, the Council shall prepare and give to the Minister a report on the Council’s operations for the year.30. Technical advisory committee
31. Functions of the technical advisory committee
Part IV – ENFORCEMENT
32. Powers of an occupational safety and health officer
33. Power of occupational safety and health officer to conduct proceedings
34. Power to take samples
35. Power to deal with cause of imminent danger
36. Improvement notices
If an occupational safety and health officer is of the opinion that a person—37. Prohibition notices
38. Appeal against improvement or prohibition notice
39. Provisions on prohibition notices and improvement notices
40. Occupational safety and health officer not to disclose information or source of complaints
41. Indemnity of occupational safety and health officer
No matter or thing done by an occupational safety and health officer shall if the matter or thing is done bona fide for the executing of the functions, powers or duties under this Act, render the officer personally liable for any action, claim or demand whatsoever.42. Safety and health advisor
Part V – REGISTRATION OF WORKPLACES
43. Register of workplaces
The Director shall keep a register of workplaces in which he shall cause to be entered such particulars in relation to every workplace required to be registered under this Act as he may consider necessary.44. Registration of workplaces
45. Exceptions to registration
46. Appeals
Part VI – HEALTH-GENERAL PROVISIONS
47. Cleanliness
48. Overcrowding
49. Ventilation
50. Lighting
51. Drainage of floors
Where any process is carried on which renders the floor liable to be wet to such an extent that the wet is capable of being removed by drainage, effective means shall be provided and maintained for draining off the wet.52. Sanitary conveniences
53. Enforcement of section 52 by local authorities
The provisions of section 52 and of any rules made thereunder shall, in such areas as the Minister may by notice in the Gazette direct, be enforced by the local authority.54. Duty of occupational safety and health officer as to sanitary defects remediable by local authority
Where an occupational safety and health officer finds any act or default in relation to any drain, sanitary convenience, water supply, nuisance or other matter in a workplace which is liable to be dealt with by the local authority under this Part or under the law relating to public health, he shall give notice therefore in writing to the local authority.Part VII – MACHINERY SAFETY
55. Safe use of plant, machinery and equipment
All plant, machinery and equipment whether fixed or mobile for use either at the workplace or as a workplace, shall only be used for work which they are designed for and be operated by a competent person.56. Prime movers
57. Transmission machinery
58. Other machinery
59. Hand-held and portable power tools and equipments
60. Construction and maintenance of fencing
All fencing or other safeguards provided in pursuance of the provisions of this Part shall be of substantial construction, constantly maintained and kept in position while the parts required to be fenced or safeguarded are in motion or in use.61. Construction and disposal of new machinery
62. Self-acting machines
63. Hoists and lifts
64. Chains, ropes and lifting tackle
65. Cranes and other lifting machines
66. Register of chains, ropes and lifting tackle and lifting machines
A register, containing the particulars set out in the Sixth Schedule, shall be kept in every workplace with respect to all chains, ropes or lifting tackle except fibre rope slings, to which section 64 applies, and with respect to all lifting machines to which section 65 applies.67. Steam boilers
68. Steam receivers and steam containers
69. Air receivers
70. Cylinders for compressed, liquefied and dissolved gases
71. Refrigeration plants
72. Examination and testing of plants
Any person who, for the purposes of this Part, desires that an examination of any equipment or plant be carried out by a person approved for that purpose under this Part, and any person who desires to obtain the certificates referred to in sections 63, 64, 65, 67, 68, 69, 70 and 71 from any such approved person, may, on paymentof the prescribed fee, request such an approved person to carry out the necessary tests and examination with a view to obtaining the certificate.Part VIII – SAFETY-GENERAL PROVISIONS
73. Vessels containing dangerous liquids
74. Storage
75. Ladders
76. Ergonomics at the workplace
77. Safe means of access and safe place of employment
78. Fire prevention
79. Precautions in places where dangerous fumes likely
80. Precautions with respect to explosive or inflammable dust or gas
81. Safety provisions in case of fire
82. Evacuation procedures
Part IX – CHEMICAL SAFETY
83. The handling, transportation and disposal of chemicals and other hazardous substances
84. Material safety data sheets
85. Labelling and marking
86. Classification of hazardous chemicals and substances
87. Corrosive substances
Where corrosive substances are used and there is danger of an employee being splashed thereby, the employer shall provide for use by an employee in case of an emergency—88. Exposure limits to hazardous substances
The Minister may, after consultation with the Council, establish or adopt exposure limits on hazardous substances in the workplace so as to protect persons employed.89. Control of air pollution, noise and vibration
90. Redeployment on medical advice
Where work involves exposure to air pollution, noise or vibration or any other adverse working conditions, a medical practitioner may recommend redeployment if he is of the opinion that the employee cannot continue working in that environment.Part X – WELFARE-GENERAL PROVISIONS
91. Supply of drinking water
92. Washing facilities
93. Accommodation for clothing
Every occupier shall provide and maintain for the use of a person employed, adequate and suitable accommodation for clothing not worn during working hours.94. Facilities for sitting
Every occupier shall provide and maintain, for the use of a person employed whose work is done standing, suitable facilities for sitting, sufficient to enable the person employed to take advantage of any opportunities for resting which may occur in the course of his employment.95. First-aid
Every occupier shall provide and maintain so as to be readily accessible, a first-aid box or cupboard of the prescribed standard.Part XI – HEALTH, SAFETY AND WELFARE SPECIAL PROVISIONS
96. Permit to work
97. Work processes which may harm persons below eighteen years
Employer shall not allow a person below the apparent age of eighteen years to be employed at any workplace or work process, or perform work, which by its nature or the circumstances, in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the person’s safety or health.98. Supervision of apprentices and indentured learners
No person undergoing apprenticeship or indentured learnership shall be allowed to attend to any machinery, equipment, tools, plant or process unless adequate supervision and protection against hazardous work conditions and environment is provided and maintained.99. Training and supervision of inexperienced workers
100. Meals in certain dangerous trades
No person shall be permitted to partake of food or drink where a poisonous or otherwise injurious substance is used so as to give rise to any dust or fume.101. Protective clothing and appliances
102. Protection of eyes in certain processes
103. Medical surveillance
Part XII – SPECIAL APPLICATIONS
104. Premises where part of building is separate workplace
105. Premises in which steam boilers are used
106. Premises in which hoists or lifts are used
107. Platforms erected over water
Part XIII – OFFENCES, PENALTIES AND LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
108. Offences
109. General penalty
110. Court may order cause of contravention to be remedied
111. Penalty in case of death or injury
If any person is killed, or dies, suffers any bodily injury, in consequence of the occupier or owner of a workplace having contravened any provision of this Act, the occupier or owner of the workplace shall, without prejudice to any other penalty, be liable to a fine not exceeding one million shillings or, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding twelve months; and the whole or any part of the fine may be applied for the benefit of the injured person or his family or otherwise as the Minister may determine:Provided that—112. Forgery, false declaration, etc.
A person who—113. Penalty on persons committing offence for which occupier is liable
Where an act or default for which an occupier or owner of a workplace is liable under this Act is in fact the act or default of an agent, servant, worker or other person, that agent, servant, worker or other person shall be deemed to have committed the offence and shall be liable to the like penalty as if he were the occupier or owner, as the case may be.114. Exemption of occupier or owner on conviction of actual offender
115. Proceedings against persons other than occupiers or owners
Where, under this Act, any person is substituted for the occupier or owner of a workplace with respect to any provisions of this Act, any order, summons, notice or proceeding which, for the purpose of any of those provisions, is, by or under this Act, required or authorized to be served on or taken in relation to the occupier or owner is hereby required or authorized, as the case may be, to be served on or taken in relation to that person.116. Prosecution of offences
117. Special provisions as to evidence
118. Service of documents
119. Power to modify agreements
If by reason of an agreement between the owner and the occupier of premises, the whole or any part of which has been let as a workplace, the owner or occupier is prevented from carrying out any structural or other alterations in the premises which are necessary to enable him to comply with the provisions of this Act or in order to conform with any standard or requirement imposed by or under this Act, the owner or occupier may apply to a judge in chambers for the terms of the agreement to be set aside or modified, and the judge, after hearing the parties and any witnesses whom they may desire to call, may make such an order setting aside or modifying the terms of the agreement as he considers just and equitable in the circumstances of the case.120. Power to apportion expenses
Where in any premises the whole or any part of which has been let as a workplace, any structural or other alterations are required in order to comply with the provisions of this Act, or in order to conform with any standard or requirement imposed by or under this Act, and the owner or occupier, as the case may be, alleges that the whole or part of the expenses of the alterations ought to be borne by the occupier or owner, the owner or occupier may apply to a judge in chambers for the expenses of the alterations to be apportioned between them; and the judge, after hearing the parties and any witnesses who they may desire to call, may make such an order concerning the expenses or their apportionment as he considers just and equitable in the circumstances of the case, regard being had to the terms of any contract between the parties, or, in the alternative, determine the lease.Part XIV – MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
121. Posting of abstract of Act, rules and notices
122. General register
123. Preservation of registers and records
124. Return of persons employed
125. Approval of plans of workplace premises
126. Occupational Safety and Health Fund
127. Safety and health regulations
128. Power to direct formal investigation of accidents and cases of disease
129. Repeal and savings
History of this document
31 December 2022
Revised by
24th Annual Supplement
Read this version
18 March 2020
09 November 2007 this version
26 October 2007
Commenced
22 October 2007
Assented to
Cited documents 3
Act 3
1. | Companies Act | 1549 citations |
2. | Co-operative Societies Act | 371 citations |
3. | Government Financial Management Act | 42 citations |
Documents citing this one 139
Judgment 99
Gazette 27
Legal Notice 6
Act 3
1. | Energy Act | 282 citations |
2. | Petroleum Act | 35 citations |
3. | Engineering Technology Act | 6 citations |
Bench Bulletin 2
1. | Bench Bulletin - Issue 14 | |
2. | Bench Bulletin - Issue 48 |
Bill 2
1. | The Business Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019 | |
2. | The Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill, 2022 |
Subsidiary legislation
Title
|
Date
|
|
---|---|---|
The Occupational Safety and Health (First Aid in the Workplace) Regulations | Legal Notice 79 of 2024 | 7 June 2024 |
Occupational Safety and Health (First Aid in the Workplace) Regulations, 2023
Repealed
|
Legal Notice 53 of 2024 | 12 April 2024 |
Occupational Safety and Health (Registration of Workplace Premises) Regulations | Legal Notice 51 of 2022 | 29 March 2022 |
Occupational Safety and Health (Fees Charged for Occupational Safety and Health Services) Regulations | Legal Notice 50 of 2022 | 29 March 2022 |