Duties of employers /occupiers (Section 6)
(1) Every occupier shall ensure the safety, health and welfare at work of all persons working in his workplace.
(2) Without prejudice to the generality of an occupier’s duty under subsection (1), the duty of the occupier includes—
(a) The provision and maintenance of plant and systems and procedures of work that are safe and without risks to health;
(b) Arrangements for ensuring safety and absence of risks to health in connection with the use, handling, storage and transport of articles and substances;
(c) The provision of such information, instruction, training and supervision as is necessary to ensure the safety and health at work of every person employed
(d) 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;
(e) 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 at work;
(f) Informing all persons employed of——
(i) Any risks from new technologies; and
(ii) Imminent danger;
(g) Ensuring that every person employed participates in the application and review of safety and health measures.
(3) 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.
(4) 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;
(5) 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.
(6) It is the duty of every occupier to register his workplace unless such workplace is excepted from registration under this Act.
(7) 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
Duties of employee (Section 13)
(1) Every employee shall, while at the workplace—
(a) Ensure his own safety and health and that of other persons who may be affected by his acts or omissions at the workplace;
(b) 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;
(c) 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;
(d) 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;
(e) Report to the supervisor, any situation which he has reason to believe would present a hazard and which he cannot correct;
(f) Report to his supervisor any accident or injury that arises in the course of or in connection with his work;
(g) 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.
(2) A employee who contravenes the provisions of this section commits an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding fifty thousand shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to both.
Notice of accidents and dangerous occurrences (Section 21)
(1) 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.
(2) Where an accident in a workplace, causes the death of a person therein, the employer or self employed person shall—
(a) Inform the area occupational safety and health officer within twenty-four hours of the occurrence of the accident;
(b) 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.
(3) 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.
(4) 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.
(5) An employer shall cause all workplace injuries to be entered in the general register specified in section 122.
(6) 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.
(7) 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.
(8) The provisions of this section shall extend and apply to the dangerous occurrences specified in the First Schedule
(9) The Minister may, on the advice of the Council, by notice in the Gazette amend the First Schedule.
(10) A person who fails to notify an accident or a dangerous occurrence as required under this section commits an offence and shall on conviction be liable to a fine not exceeding two hundred thousand shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to both.
Notification of occupational diseases (Section 22)
(1) 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.
(2) A medical practitioner who fails to send a notice in as required by subsection (1), commits an offence and shall on conviction be liable to a fine not exceeding fifty thousand shillings.
(3) 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.
(4) The Minister may, by rules apply the provisions of this s
ection to all workplaces or any class or description of workplace to any disease other not specified in the Second Schedule.
