Occupational Safety and Health Legal and Regulatory Framework
What the domain tests
This domain checks whether you can place a workplace duty within Kenya’s OSH framework and distinguish the Act, subsidiary rules, guidance and enforcement. Questions often test who has the duty, what trigger applies, and which regulator acts.
Core rules and concepts
- The Occupational Safety and Health Act, 2007 is the primary statute. DOSHS administers it, and inspectors enforce it through improvement notices, prohibition notices and prosecution.
- Subsidiary rules add specifics for committees, fire risk reduction, PPE, noise, hazardous substances and first aid. A rule does not replace the Act’s general duties.
- The occupier’s duty is broad and non-delegable: safe plant, systems, premises, training, supervision and welfare. Employees must take reasonable care, cooperate and report hazards.
- Committee arrangements support compliance but do not transfer the occupier’s legal duty to the committee.
Worked example
A 35-worker bakery has a first-aid box and a verbal safety briefing but no safety committee. The committee trigger is 20 or more employees, so the absence is a compliance gap. The fix is a constituted committee with elected worker representatives, minutes and a work plan, not merely another briefing.
Traps that cost marks
Treating the Act as applying only to factories; citing guidance as if it were law; assuming a committee shifts liability; confusing DOSHS with NEMA or county fire services; ignoring subsidiary rules that add specific duties.
Exam focus
Link each scenario to the correct duty-holder and enforcement route. A good answer names the Act or rule, identifies the trigger, and states the practical compliance step.