Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2003, published 92nd ILC session (2004)

Labour Inspection (Agriculture) Convention, 1969 (No. 129) - Kenya (Ratification: 1979)

The Committee notes the Government’s brief reports and the information provided in reply to its previous comments. It also notes the legislative documents, the statistics and the annual inspection report.

Transport facilities, discharge of the duties of inspection in agricultural enterprises and preparation of an activity report. The absence of an annual report on the activities of labour inspection in agricultural enterprises would appear to be not only due, according to the Government, to the difficulty of separating the specific data requested from those relating to the inspection activities carried out in other economic sectors. Indeed, the Committee notes that the activities reports required under both this Convention and Convention No. 81, are administrative rather than technical and as such are not the proper tool for assessing the extent to which the legal provisions on working conditions and the protection of workers are applied. These reports are more a reflection of the political, structural and financial difficulties that make it impossible to implement a system of labour inspection. The information provided by the Government shows that the lack of transport facilities is the primary obstacle to the discharge of labour inspection duties, particularly in agricultural enterprises. Travel being materially impossible, labour inspectors are inevitably confined to a limited area, which is hardly conducive to securing farmers’ compliance with their legal obligations regarding the working conditions and protection of their employees. Such a situation has particularly adverse effects on vulnerable categories of workers (children, young persons, women and persons with disabilities). For employers to be inclined to comply with the law, they must be aware that they are being supervised by the public authorities and that they might be the subject of a workplace inspection at any moment. Prompt efforts are therefore needed to secure the means to ensure the mobility of the inspectors exercising their duties in the agricultural sector. The production of periodical reports of the activities of the labour inspectors in accordance with Article 25 of the Convention is contingent upon this, since such reports constitute the basis for the annual report which should be formulated, published and transmitted to the International Labour Office, in accordance with Article 26, and should contain the legislative and statistical information requested in Article 27. Referring to paragraphs 272 et seq. of its General Survey of 1985 on labour inspection, the Committee once again draws the Government’s attention to the importance of annual inspection reports to an assessment of the extent to which the objectives of the Convention are being achieved. It hopes that the Government will ensure that measures are taken rapidly, if necessary with international financial assistance to put into practice the principle of the mobility which is essential to the performance of labour inspection duties, particularly in agriculture, and that it will provide information to the Office on the developments in this regard.