OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH

ACT (OSHA) 2007

This Act shall apply to all workplaces where any person is at work, whether temporarily or
permanently.
The purpose of the Act is to:
(a)secure the safety, health and welfare of persons at work; and
(b)protect persons other than persons at work against risks to safety and health arising out of, or in
connection with, the activities of persons at work.

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• Use of approved codes of practice in criminal proceedings.

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risks to safety and health arising out of, or in connection with, the activities of persons at work.
GENERAL DUTIES

Occupiers:
 Every occupier shall ensure the safety, health and welfare at work of all persons working
in his workplace; the duty of the occupier includes:
 The provision and maintenance of plant and systems and procedures of work that
are safe and without risks to health;
 Arrangements for ensuring safety and absence of risks to health in connection
with the use, handling, storage and transport of articles and substances;
 The provision of such information, instruction, training and supervision as is
necessary to ensure the safety and health at work of every person employed.
 The maintenance of any workplace under the occupier's control, in a condition
that is safe and without risks to health and the provision and maintenance of
means of access to and egress from it that are safe and without such risks to
health.
 The provision and maintenance of a working environment for every person
employed that is, safe, without risks to health, and adequate as regards facilities
and arrangements for the employees’ welfare.
 Informing all persons employed of any risks from new technologies; and imminent danger;
and ensuring that every person employed participates in the application and review of
safety and health measures.
 Every occupier shall carry out appropriate risk assessments in relation to the safety and
health of persons employed and, on the basis of these results, adopt preventive and
protective measures to ensure that under all conditions of their intended use, all chemicals,
machinery, equipment, tools and process under the control of the occupier are safe and
without risk to health and comply with the requirements of safety and health provisions in
this Act.
 Every occupier shall send a copy of a report of risk assessment carried out under this
section to the area occupational safety and health officer;
 Every occupier shall take immediate steps to stop any operation or activity where
there is an imminent and serious danger to safety and health and to evacuate all
persons employed as appropriate.
 It is the duty of every occupier to register his workplace unless such workplace is
excepted from registration under this Act.
 An occupier who fails to comply with a duty imposed on him under this section
commits an offence and shall on conviction be liable to a fine not exceeding five
hundred thousand shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six
months or to both.
 Prepare and as often as may be appropriate, revise a written statement of his
general policy with respect to the safety and health at work of his employees and
the organisation and arrangements for the time being in force for carrying out that
policy; and to bring the statement and any revision of it to the notice of all of his
employees.
 The occupier of a workplace shall cause a thorough safety and health audit of his
workplace to be carried out at least once in every period of twelve months by a
safety and health advisor, who shall issue a report of such an audit containing the
prescribed particulars to the occupier on payment of a prescribed fee and shall
send a copy of the report to the Director.
Self-employed persons:
 Shall take all necessary precautions to ensure his own safety and health and that of any other
person in his workplace or within the environs of his workplace;
 At all times use appropriate safe systems of work, preventive and control measures and
where not feasible, use suitable personal protective appliances and clothing required under
this Act;
 Comply with any safety and health rules, regulations instructions and procedures issued
under this Act;
Report to the Director any situation which he has reason to believe would present
imminent danger or hazard and which he cannot correct, and any incident or injury
that arises in the course of or in connection with his work, as required under this Act.
Employees employee shall, while at the workplace:
Ensure his own safety and health and that of other persons who may be
affected by his acts or omissions at the workplace;
Co-operate with his employer or any other person in the discharge of any
duty or requirement imposed on the employer or that other person by this
Act or any regulation made hereunder;
At all times wear or use any protective equipment or clothing provided by
the employer for the purpose of preventing risks to his safety and health;
 Comply with the safety and health procedures, requirements and instructions given
by a person having authority over him for his own or any other person’s safety;
 Report to the supervisor, any situation which he has reason to believe would
present a hazard and which he cannot correct;
 Report to his supervisor any accident or injury that arises in the course of or in
connection with his work; and
 With regard to any duty or requirement imposed on his employer or any other
person by or under any other relevant statutory provision, co-operate with the
employer or other person to enable that duty or requirement to be performed or
complied with.
 Every employee shall report to the immediate supervisor any situation which the
employee has reasonable grounds to believe presents an imminent or serious
danger to the safety or health of that employee or of other employee in the same
premises, and until the occupier has taken remedial action, if necessary, the
occupier shall not require the employee to return to a workplace where there is
continuing imminent or serious danger to safety or health.
 An employee who has left a workplace, which the employee has reasonable
justification to believe presents imminent and serious danger to life and health
shall not be dismissed, discriminated against or disadvantaged for such action by
the employer.
 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.
 No person shall engage in any improper activity or behaviour at the workplace, which
might create or constitute a hazard to that person or any other person.
 For purposes of this section, improper activity or behaviour includes boisterous play,
scuffling, fighting, practical jokes, unnecessary running or jumping or similar conduct.
General duties of occupier and self-employed to persons other
than their employees:
• Every occupier shall conduct his undertaking in such a manner as to ensure, that a person who is not
his employee who may be affected thereby is not exposed to risks to safety or health.
• Every self-employed person shall conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure that he and any
other person who is not his employee who may be affected thereby is not exposed to risks to safety or
health.
• It shall be the duty of every employer and every self-employed person to give relevant safety and
health information to every person, not being his employee who may be affected by the manner in
which the employer or the self-employed person conducts his undertaking, on such aspects of the way
he conducts his business as may affect safety or health.
• An occupier of non-domestic premises which have been made available to persons, not being his
employees, as a place of work, or as a place where the employees may use a plant or substance
provided for their use there, shall take such measures as are practicable to ensure that the premises,
all means of access thereto and egress therefrom available for use by persons using the premises,
and any plant or substance in the premises provided for use there, are safe and without risks to
health.
Duties of designers, manufacturers importers etc, with regard to articles and substances for
use at work:
 A person who designs, manufactures, imports or supplies any article for use at work shall ensure,
that the article is so designed and constructed as to be safe and without risks to health when properly
used;
 Carry out, or arrange for the carrying out of such testing and examination as may be
necessary to ensure that the article is safe and without risk to health when properly used;
 Take such steps as are necessary to ensure that there is available, in connection with the
use of the article at work, adequate information about the use for which it is designed and
has been tested, and about any conditions necessary to ensure that, when put to that use, it
will be safe and without risks to health.
 A person who designs or manufactures any article for use at work shall carry out or arrange for the
carrying out of any necessary research to identify, eliminate or minimise any risks to safety or health
to which the design or article may give rise.
 A person who erects or installs any article for use at work in any premises where that article is to be
used by a worker shall ensure, that the way in which the article is erected or installed makes it safe
and it not a risk to the safety and health of the worker when properly used.
 Where a person designs, manufactures, imports an article for, or supplies an article to another person
on the basis of a written undertaking by that other person to take specified steps sufficient to ensure,
so far as is reasonably practicable, that the article will be safe and without risks to health when
properly used, the undertaking shall have the effect of relieving the first-mentioned person from the
duty imposed by subsection (1)(a) to such extent as is reasonable having regard to the terms of the
undertaking.
Notice of accidents and dangerous occurrences:
 An employer or self-employed person shall notify the area occupational safety and health officer of
any accident, dangerous occurrence, or occupational poisoning which has occurred at the
workplace.
 Where an accident in a workplace, causes the death of a person therein, the employer or
self-employed person shall inform the area occupational safety and health officer within
twenty-four hours of the occurrence of the accident; and
 Send a written notice of the accident in the prescribed form to the area occupational safety
and health officer within seven days of the occurrence of the accident.
 Where an accident in a workplace causes non-fatal injuries to a person therein, the employer
shall send to the area occupational safety and health officer, a written notice of the accident in
the prescribed form within seven days of the occurrence of the accident.
 In the case of death due to a workplace accident, non- fatal injuries arising from a workplace
accident, an occupational disease or a dangerous occurrence at the workplace, involving a self-
employed person incapable of submitting notification, such notification shall be submitted to
the area occupational safety and health officer by the occupier.
 Where a person injured in an accident dies after the accident is notified under this section, the
employer shall send a notice of the death in writing, to the area occupational safety and health
officer as soon as he is informed of the death.
 Where an accident to which this section applies occurs to an employee and the occupier of the workplace is
not the employer of the person injured or killed, the employer of that employee, shall, immediately report
the accident to the occupier or, the Director and the area occupational safety and health officer.

 An employer shall cause all workplace injuries to be entered in the general register specified in section 122.

 Where a person injured in an accident dies after the accident is notified under this section, the employer
shall send a notice of the death in writing, to the area occupational safety and health officer as soon as he
is informed of the death.
 Where an accident to which this section applies occurs to an employee and the occupier of the workplace
is not the employer of the person injured or killed, the employer of that employee, shall, immediately
report the accident to the occupier or, the Director and the area occupational safety and health officer.
Notification of occupational diseases:
• A medical practitioner attending a patient who he believes to be suffering from any disease
specified in the Second Schedule, contracted in any workplace, shall within seven days of attending
the patient unless such a notice has been previously sent, send to the Director, a notice stating the
name and full postal address of the patient, the disease from which, in the opinion of the medical
practitioner, the patient is suffering, and the name and address of the workplace in which the patient
was last employed.
• An occupier shall send a written notice of any disease, specified in the Second Schedule, occurring
in a workplace to the Director and the provisions of section 21 with respect to the notification of
accidents shall mutatis mutandis apply to any notification of diseases.