Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2002, published 91st ILC session (2003)

Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) - Kenya (Ratification: 1964)

Further to its previous comments, the Committee notes the Government’s report for the period ending May 2001 and the full information supplied in the annual reports of the Labour Department of the Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Development for 2000 and 2001. Noting the handwritten modifications made to the text of certain provisions of the Factories Act, the Committee would be grateful to be provided with a copy of the definitive consolidated version of the Act.

1. Staff, means of action and duties of the labour inspectorate (Articles 10, 11, 12 and 16 of the Convention). The Committee notes that, despite the increase in the staff of the labour inspectorate during the course of 2001, the number of inspections carried out fell substantially due to the inadequacy of the resources of the inspection services, particularly with regard to transport and the forms required for inspections. The Committee notes that, in the annual reports for 2000 and 2001, the Labour Commissioner indicates, among the measures necessary to improve the effectiveness of its services, the need for training on computer equipment with a view to the analysis of data in the fields covered by the Ministry. From the point of view of the Committee, it is also indispensable to ensure that labour inspectors benefit from the mobility and working conditions that are necessary to discharge the inspections which should take up the majority of their working time, and which is an important source of relevant information. With the disastrous effects of the AIDS pandemic, the most important of which is certainly the increasing number of child workers, often in activities which are harmful to their physical and mental health, and in a general environment that is increasingly dominated by informal economic relations, it is urgent for the Government to include amongst its priorities the strengthening of all the human, material and financial resources with a view to supervising the application of legal provisions respecting conditions of work throughout the country. The Committee hopes that the Government will be able to provide information in its next report indicating that real progress has been made in this respect.

2. Labour inspection and child labour. The Committee notes with interest the document entitled "Child labour policy", describing the magnitude of the problem related to the tragic AIDS pandemic and which sets out the institutional, educational, economic, social, legal and health measures envisaged to reduce the phenomenon. The Government is requested to provide particulars on the manner in which it is planned that the strengthening of the factory inspection services will ensure the protection of young persons against occupational hazards and to provide a copy of the "Guide to labour" prepared by the labour inspectorate and mentioned in the above document.

Noting that the Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Development has been designated as the focal point for the implementation and coordination of the child labour policy, but that the problem of child labour also lies within the responsibility of workers’ and employers’ organizations, non-governmental organizations, including the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and local institutions with the support of donors, the Committee requests the Government to provide regular information on the action taken and its results, as well as on the role entrusted to labour inspectors in the implementation of the above policy in coordination with the newly created Child Labour Division and the National Steering Committee on Elimination of Child Labour.