A vulnerability and capacity assessment: A study of selected plants in Nairobi's industrial area

Abstract

This is an exploratory study in which the vulnerability and capacity of selected plants based in Nairobi's industrial area is assessed. The objectives of the study were to identify the awareness level of industrial plant employees, to establish if there were any structural changes that had occurred in the industrial plants in regards to industrial safety and to identify the vulnerability levels of elements at risk in the industrial plants. The study employed both primary and secondary techniques and tools of data collection. Nairobi's industrial area was purposively selected for its proximity, its likelihood of housing each of the 6 categories of industrial plants and being the largest single industrial area and the oldest in Kenya, with firms dating back to World War 1. This was also so since Nairobi's industrial area also houses the offices of the Directorate of Occupational health and safety which played a major role in this study. The study interviewed a total of 75 industrial plant workers based in the plant's production area ( 64 male and 11 females). Secondary data was sourced from the published and unpublished information from libraries which included books, magazines, newspapers, scholarly journals and copies of the Kenyan Law. The data was analysed through the use of MS Excel and Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) packages. Findings indicated that industrial plant workers employ a larger male work force in the production area as compared to females. Further, the findings revealed that these workers are poorly informed on their safety in the workplace. This was evident from respondents who had encountered an accident but could not relate to how it had been responded to. Though the majority of these respondents worked in an environment where at least one safety equipment was available, less than half of the respondents were trained or oriented on the safe use of the equipments which with the wrong application can lead to injuries or multiplicity of the accident. This is besides the existence of safety committees mandatory in each plant and whose mandate is to enforce safety in the work place. These plants however did have future plants to improve on safety. Some of these plans included; installation of emergency exits, clearance of gangways, introduction of fans, air suckers and fire alarms, and fire alarms, display of exit maps, introduction of a drainage for spilled products among others. Various factors were identified as contributing to the vulnerability of industrial plants to hazards. They included; the lack of safety awareness among workers, low knowledge on equipment use, poor drill participation, locking in of workers as they work, the lack of collaboration, ignorance among workers, selective training of workers and the high cost of installing safety equipments among others. The study recommends that future researches of the same nature be conducted in other major towns and special attention be paid to those not registered under the Directorate of Occupational Health and Safety Services whose registration may mean that there is some level of compliance. It is also recommended that a comparative study of the same nature be conducted with the quest to identify if any differences exist between casual and permanent workers as pertains to occupational safety. Further research should also be conducted in the area of proper working gear and protective equipments required for workers in different production areas. The outcome of this research also gave an indication that there was a higher level of compliance in plants that had international affiliation, (meaning that they had their mother companies in other countries) as compared to those that were purely local. Research should be conducted to establish if there is any relationship in these findings and factors that contribute to them.