An Investigation of Probable Factors Contributing to Industrial Accidents Among Manufacturing Firms in Kenya: an Empirical Study

Abstract

The study's principal objective was to identify the possible factors that contribute to industrial accidents and injuries among the manufacturing firms ln Kenya. Since most companies have scarce resources factors compared to was deemed their wants, isolation of the prevalent necessary. This helps facili tate the prioritization of company efforts ln an attempt to reduce occupational hazards. The other obj ecti ve was to compare the identified factors with those that have been found to operate in few other countries and which have been reported ln the literature. The study was stimulated by the recognition of the fact that industrial accidents are costly to the organization, individuals and the society at large in terms of human life, money, material losses and psychological damages. To achieve the stated objectives, the study was conducted among the manufacturing firms located ln Nairobi, with the factory/workshop managers being the target respondents. The results showed that six factors, each comprising of various components mostly contribute to the prohlem. Among them are the lack of training on the job being carried out coupled with the nature of the work being done - that is, some jobs are more dangerous than others. But further analysis by use of the mean scores identified two factors which management should strive to overcome if safety problems are to be minimized. This relates to the behaviour of the employees in that some neglect to use the protective devices while

others make safety devices ineffective by tampering with them. When the comparison was made, Kenya was found to have similar problems with other countries notably Tanzania, zambia, Japan, United States of America, France and Canada in regard to the poor use or neglect of safety devices by the employees. Alcoholism and drug abuse in the workplace in Kenya was found to be a less prominent factor in its contribution to industrial accidents .