dc.description.abstract | All organizations have a moral and legal duty to protect the wellbeing, health and safety of
workers. Despite the enactment of the OSH Act in 2007, with aim of preventing OSH related
accidents/injuries/illnesses at all workplaces in Kenya, there are still increasing number of
injuries/accidents/illness including deaths reported by DOSHS. The main objective of the study
was to determine the organizational factors that influence OSH practices at New KCC Dandora
Factory and Daima Dairy. The specific objectives were; to establish to what extent staff protection,
participation and training influence OSH practices at New KCC Dandora Factory and Daima
Dairy. The study employed cross-sectional comparative case study research design. Data was
collected using a standard self-administered questionnaire, checklist and interview. The results
were presented in tables with frequencies and percentages for comparison. The findings of the
study were that New KCC and Daima were at par on levels of staff protection, while New KCC
was doing better on staff participation and staff training. On protection of staff, there were
measures in place to protect staff including statutory inspection of the key machinery,
shielding/guarding of hazardous machines, provision of good working environment and provision
of protective gear. On staff participation, findings indicated that there were platforms for staff to
report incidents and share ideas for improvement as outlined in OSHA 2007. On training, it was
established that fire safety and first aid trainings were common and were confirmed to be effective
in preventing injuries/accidents/illnesses. In conclusion, the three factors were confirmed to have
great impact on OSH practices and if streamlined would lead to better performance of the OSH
programs. The study recommends that DOSHS should be more proactive in conducting spot
checks at all workplaces to confirm safety status; workplaces should apply best practices and a
proactive approach surpassing minimum requirements required by regulations; the organizations
should increase the frequency of evaluation of the OSH performance and stop relying on
mandatory annual self-audits for continuous improvement and look into implementing ISO 45001
to increase safety and health compliance; employee medical examinations should be conducted
regularly; and that there should be refresher trainings for first aid and fire safety as per applicable
regulations and introduction of training needs analysis as well as impact analysis after training. | en_US |