Section 2 of The Work Injury Benefits Act CAP 236: Interpretation
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—
“accident” means an accident arising out of and in the course and scope of an employee’s employment and resulting in personal injury;
“Board” means the National Labour Board;
“compensation” means compensation as provided for under this Act and includes medical aid and any benefit of any nature to which an employee or his dependants may be entitled to under this Act;
“capitalized value” means the total anticipated allowance over a certain period;
“Council” means the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health;
“dependant” means a person defined as a dependant in section 6;
“Director” means the Director of Occupational Safety and Health Services;
“earnings” means the remuneration of an employee at the time of the accident calculated in the manner set out in section 37;
“employer” means a person defined as an employer in section 4 and includes a principal;
“injury” means a personal injury and includes the contracting of a scheduled disease;
“medical advisory panel” means a panel appointed from medical and occupational health and safety practitioners to advise the Director for purposes of this Act;
“medical aid” means any or all of the benefits specified in sections 45 and 47;
“medical practitioner” means a person appointed by the Director for purposes of section 48 entitled to practice in Kenya under the Medical Practitioners and Dentists Act;
“Minister” means the Minister for the time being responsible for labour matters;
“periodical payments” means a periodical payment of
compensation in accordance with the provisions of this Act;
“permanent disablement” means permanent injury or
disfigurement;
“personal representative” means the executor or other person lawfully appointed to take charge of the estate of a deceased employee and if there is no such person so appointed, any person specially appointed under this Act to make an application on behalf of the deceased employee’s dependants for compensation, and in other respects, to act as his personal representative for the purposes of this Act;
“scheduled disease” means any disease specified in the Second Schedule;
“temporary disablement” means, a condition of temporary nature caused by an accident which results in the loss of or diminution of wage earning capacity in the work at which such employee was employed at the time of accident;
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- Section 3 - Application
This Act shall apply to all employees, including employees employed by the Government, other than the armed forces, in the same way and to the same extent as if the Government were a private...
- Section 4 - Meaning of employer
(1) In this Act, “employer” means any person who employs an employee and includes—
(a) the legal personal representative of a deceased employer;
(b) any person controlling the business of an...
- Section 5 - Meaning of employee
(1) In this Act, employee means a person who has been employed for wages or a salary under a contract of service and includes an apprentice or indentured learner.
(2) Sub-section (1) applies...
- Section 6 - Meaning of dependant
In this Act “dependant” means—
(a) the widow or widower of an employee;
(b) a child of the employee who has not attained the age of eighteen years including a posthumous child , a stepchild and an...
- Section 7 - Employer to be insured
(1) Every employer shall obtain and maintain an insurance policy, with an insurer approved by the Minister in respect of any liability that the employer may incur under this Act to any of his...
- Section 8 - Registration of employer
(1)Every employer carrying on business in Kenya shall within the prescribed period and in the prescribed manner—
(a) register with the Director;
(b) furnish the Director with the prescribed...
- Section 9 - Employer to keep records
(1) An employer shall—
(a) keep a register or other record of the earnings and other prescribed particulars of all employees;
(b) at all reasonable times produce the register or record on demand to...
- Section 10 - Right to compensation
1) An employee who is involved in an accident resulting in the employee’s disablement or death is subject to the provisions of this Act, and entitled to the benefits provided for under this...
- Section 11 - Accident outside Kenya
(1) If an employer carries on business chiefly in Kenya and an employee ordinarily employed in Kenya is injured in an accident while temporarily deployed outside Kenya, the employee is, subject to...
- Section 12 - Accidents during training for or performance of emergency services
If an employee is injured in an occupational accident or contracts an occupational disease while the employee, with the consent of the employer, is engaged in any organized first aid, ambulance or...
- Section 13 - Special circumstances in which Director may refuse award
The Director may refuse to grant compensation under this Act to an employee if—
(a) the employee at any time represented to the employer, knowing the information to be false, that he was not...
- Section 14 - Special circumstances in which the Director may order compensation.
If in a claim for compensation under this Act it appears that the contract of service apprenticeship or learnership of the employee concerned is invalid, the Director may approve compensation for the...
- Section 15 - Employee requiring constant assistance
(1) If an injury in respect of which compensation is payable causes disablement of such a nature that the employee is unable to perform the essential functions of life without the constant assistance...
- Section 16 - Substitution of compensation for other legal remedies
No action shall lie by an employee or any dependant of an employee for the recovery of damages in respect of any occupational accident or disease resulting in the disablement or death of such employee...
- Section 17 - Claims against third parties
(1) If an occupational accident or disease in respect of which compensation is payable, was caused in circumstances resulting in another person other than the employer concerned (in this section...
- Section 18 - Threats and compulsion
Any person who threatens an employee or in any manner compels or influences an employee to do something resulting in or directed at the deprivation of that employee’s right to benefits in terms...
- Section 19 - Compensation not to be alienated
(1) Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in any written law, compensation shall not be—
(a) assigned or pledged;
(b) capable of attachment or any form of execution under a judgment or order...
- Section 20 - Compensation not to part of deceased employee’s estate
Compensation paid under this Act for the death of an employee shall not form part of the employee’s estate.
- Section 21 - Notice of accident by employee to employer
Written or verbal notice of any accident provided for in section 22 which occurs during employment shall be given by or on behalf of the employee concerned to the employer and a copy of the written...
- Section 22 - Compensation not to part of deceased employee’s estate
(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, an employer shall report an accident to the Director in the prescribed manner within seven days after having received notice of an accident or having...
- Section 23 - Inquiry by Director
(1) After having received notice of an accident or having learned that an employee has been injured in an accident the Director shall make such inquiries as are necessary to decide upon any claim or...
- Section 24 - Particulars in support of claim
(1) An employee who is injured in an accident or his dependant, shall, when reporting the accident or thereafter at the request of the employer or Director, furnish such information and documents as...
- Section 25 - Employee to submit to medical examination
(1) An employee who claims compensation or to whom compensation has been paid or is payable, shall when required by the Director or the employer as the case may be, after reasonable notice, submit...
- Section 26 - Claim for compensation
(1)A claim for compensation in accordance with this Act shall be lodged by or on behalf of the claimant in the prescribed manner within twelve months after the date of the accident or, in the case of...
- Section 27 - Lapse of right to benefits
(1) A right to benefits in accordance with this Act shall lapse if the accident is not reported to the employer within twelve months after the date of such accident.
(2) Notwithstanding the...
- Section 28 - Compensation for temporary total or partial disablement
(1) An employee who suffers temporary total disablement due to an accident that incapacitates the employee for three days or longer is entitled to receive a periodical payment equivalent to the...
- Section 29 - Expiry of compensation for temporary total or partial disablement
(1) The right to compensation for temporary, total or partial disablement expires—
(a) upon the termination of the disablement or if the employee resumes work ;
(b) if the employee resumes any...
- Section 30 - Compensation for permanent disablement
(1) Compensation for permanent disablement shall be calculated on the basis of ninety-six months earnings subject to the minimum and maximum amounts determined by the Minister, after consultation with...
- Section 31 - Amendment of First Schedule
The Minister may, on the recommendation of the Director and in consultation with the Council, amend the First Schedule by notice in the Gazette:
Provided that at least sixty days before any such...
- Section 32 - Compensation for permanent disablement of employee in training
If as a result of an accident an employee sustains permanent disablement and at the time of the accident was an apprentice or in the process of being trained in any trade, occupation or profession,...
- Section 33 - Compensation to employee previously in receipt of compensation
(1) In awarding compensation to an employee in respect of permanent disablement or in reviewing an award of compensation, the Director may take into account any compensation awarded to the employee...
- Section 34 - Amount of compensation in case of death
(1) If an employee dies as a result of an injury caused by an accident, compensation shall be paid to the dependants of the employee in accordance with the provisions of the Third Schedule, subject to...
- Section 35 - Amendment of Third Schedule
The Minister may, on the recommendation of the Director, and after consultation with the Board, amend the Third Schedule by notice in the Gazette in respect of the nature, extent, minimum and maximum...
- Section 36 - Payment of compensation
(1) Compensation payable in accordance with the provisions of this Act may, for reasons deemed by the Director to be sufficient, be—
(a) paid to the employee or the dependant of an employee...
- Section 37 - Manner of calculating earnings
(1) In order to determine compensation, the earnings of an employee are deemed to be the monthly rate at which the employee was being remunerated by the employer at the time of the accident,...
- Section 38 - Compensation in respect of scheduled and unscheduled diseases
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, an employee is entitled to compensation in accordance with this Act, if the employee—
(a) contracts a disease specified in the Second Schedule that arose...
- Section 39 - Presumption regarding cause of occupational disease
If an employee who has contracted an occupational disease specified in the Second Schedule was employed in any work mentioned in that Schedule in respect of that disease, it shall be presumed, unless...
- Section 40 - Calculation of compensation
(1) Compensation for an occupational disease shall be calculated on the basis of the earnings of the employee calculated in accordance with the provisions of section 35—
(a) at the time of the...
- Section 41 - Notice of occupational disease by employee and employer
(1) An employee shall as soon as possible after the commencement of an occupational disease give written notice thereof to the employer or to the employer where the employee was last employed, and in...
- Section 42 - Date of occupational disease
(1) For purposes of this Act, the commencement of an occupational disease is deemed to be the date on which a medical practitioner diagnosed that disease for the first time or such earlier date as...
- Section 43 - Amendment of Second Schedule.
The Minister may, on the recommendation of the Council and in consultation with the Director, amend the Second Schedule by notice in the Gazette, in respect of the description of diseases and work:...
- Section 44 - Appointment of medical advisory panels
(1) The Director may, after consultation with the Council and in consultation with the Director of Medical Services, appoint medical advisory panels which shall consist of such members as may be...
- Section 45 - First Aid
(1) An employer shall provide and maintain such appliances and services for the rendering of first aid to his employees in case of any accident as may be prescribed in any other written law in...
- Section 46 - Conveyance of injured worker
(1) If an employee is injured in an accident, which necessitates the employee’s conveyance to a hospital medical facility or from a hospital or medical facility to the employee’s residence, the...
- Section 47 - Medical expenses
(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, an employer shall defray any expenses reasonably incurred by an employee as the result of an accident arising out of, and in the course of the employers...
- Section 48 - Submission of medical report
(1) A medical practitioner who examines an employee shall within fourteen days after the first examination of the employee injured in an accident or within fourteen days after having diagnosed an...
- Section 49 - Fees for medical aid to be prescribed
The fees and charges for medical aid to a employee shall be in accordance with the scale prescribed by the Minister, from time to time, after consultation with the Council and such bodies or...
- Section 50 - Contributions by employees towards cost of medical aid prohibited
(1) An employer who demands, receives, deducts or recovers from an employee a contribution towards the cost of medical aid supplied or to be supplied in accordance with the provisions of this Act,...
- Section 51 - Objections and appeals against decisions of the Director
(1) Any person aggrieved by a decision of the Director on any matter under this Act, may within sixty days of such decision, lodge an objection with the Director an objection against such decision....
- Section 52 - Director’s reply
(1) The Director shall within fourteen days after the receipt of an objection in the prescribed form, give a written answer to the objection, varying or upholding his decision and giving reasons for...