Safety in Building Construction Works: A Review of the Causes of Accidents and Safety Regulations Requirements in Kenya

Abstract

The construction line of work is one of the adequately regulated fields but still perceived to be the riskiest. Notwithstanding the fact that numerous accidents stay unreported, the unrelenting accidents figures from Kenya and globally indicate that the construction industry is a long way from arriving at the aim of zero injuries. Hence, the need to appraise the causes of accidents in building construction works, evaluate the safety regulations requirements, and recommend strategies towards minimizing the accidents in Kenya. It was revealed from the reviewed works that, falling from height and lack of constant worker safety training were the top-most direct and underlying causes respectively behind most fatalities and injuries in building construction sites. The literature findings also postulated that, the fundamental safety regulations requirements entail the following aspects: safety training, medical surveillance, reporting and investigation of accidents, and maintenance of safety records. Consequently, this study advocates the following: provision of commendatory training resources to workers, participation of employees in safety decision making, daily site meetings with workers, reconnaissance of workers' health, whistle blowing to get rid of unscrupulous contractors, safety records to be maintained (either in paper or electronic format with appropriate backups to safeguard the documents in case the computer crashes or the system fails), the government to direct all contractors to post a summary of accidents and safety violations recorded the previous year on their websites (this will trigger a safety cognizant culture among the contractors since none of them will want the image of their organization to be tarnished and its character harmed before the customers), and lastly, employment of innovations in effectuating the safety regulations requirements in building construction works.