The World Day for Safety and Health at Work is celebrated globally on 28th April every year in commemoration and solidarity with the workers who have died or have been injured in the course of their work. It also promotes a preventative culture by creating awareness among workers on Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) issues.

This year, Kenya will be joining other countries in marking the day together with holding safety and health promotional activities for the week preceding the day.  The 2012 theme of the World Day is “Promoting safety and health in a green economy”. 

With the current global shift towards a ‘greener economy’ it is essential that ‘green’ jobs should not only protect the environment but be safe and healthy for workers.  A true green job must integrate safety and health into design, procurement, operations, maintenance, sourcing and recycling policies, certification systems and OSH quality standards.

We therefore urge all Kenyan organizations to join us in celebrating the safety week by organizing in-house events and activities related to the theme or on any other relevant OSH topic with OSH Committees taking the lead. Such activities include the following among others:-
i.    sensitizing workers on OSH issues e.g. proper usage of provided personal protective equipment;
ii.    organizing contests on occupational  safety and health;
iii.    Identifying occupational hazards and cases of ill health  among workers at the workplace and take corrective action;
iv.    Conducting fire drills and
v.    Printing and distributing safety promotional materials to employees.

Let us continually improve Safety and Health in our Workplaces.