An education and training experience in Kenya's energy sector

An education and training experience in Kenya's energy sector
H.A. Onyoyo, C.EL. Mbakaya & R. Tainusange

Summary

In Kenya, few enterprises have recognized that investing in work safety has positive implications on productivity. As a result, such firms have set aside some funds for safety education and training so as to create a safety culture in their workforce. However, a majority of the workplaces are yet to accept OHS training as an integral part of their operations; yet their working conditions remain quite deplorable. In this respect, it is commendable that the Kenya Power and Lighting Company Limited (KPLC) commissioned consultants in 1997 to conduct and evaluate work safety training courses for their senior and middle level management staff throughout the country. Pertinent observations from the 141 participants who evaluated the courses were that 92% had not attended an OHS course before despite hazards inherent in electrical work; 92% said that the course was adequately covered and had exposed them to new and invaluable work safety information. Notably, 89% reported absence of the legally mandatory Safety and Health Committees in their workplaces. While many simple methods for improving work safety and productivity were suggested in the courses, it was difficult convincing the participants that using transformer coolants to treat burns among staff and their dependants was indeed a dangerous practice. In the circumstances, OHS training should be intensified at the KPLC at all levels of human resource development and in many other enterprises both in the formal and informal sectors in Kenya. However, in view of the poverty and other economic hardships, such training will in some instances require donor support as it may not be of priority; prevailing bad working conditions notwithstanding.

Introduction

In many developing countries, Kenya included, occupational accidents and diseases continue to be on the increase despite enactment and continuous revision and enforcement of work safety legislation. It has been observed that one of the major factors resulting in unsafe work is lack of safety awareness among the workers and employers. The importance of education and training is made even more important when one notes the continued massive importation of both new and obsolete technologies, machineries and chemicals into the developing countries. High unemployment, restructuring of economies, poverty and corruption are other problems that the labor force in developing countries has to contend with; thereby worsening working conditions and the right by the workers to choose safe work.

Thus, it was no wonder that Kenyan participants in the course "Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) in Practice" organized by the Swedish National Institute for Working Life (SN1WL) for 25 African experts in 1993 undertook for their project work to develop an OHS training manual relevant to their local needs (Onyoyo et al., 1994). This manual is still being piloted and revised before its eventual publication for large scale application in Kenya and probably other countries in the region. However, it has on many occasions been adopted for use in a series of training courses with many successes (Mbakaya et al., 1996). Thus, this prioritization of OHS training as a means by which work could be made safe, productive and most rewarding to both the industrialists and their workers is in line with observations made elsewhere by other work safety scientists.