The Directorate of Occupational Safety and Health Services (DOSHS) will conduct free medical camps on workers’ fitness including mental health on the 21st of April in Nakuru and this will be replicated in other counties countrywide.
Nakuru County Director Ondimu Simba said the unrestricted medical camps would be a precursor to raising awareness of the World Day for Safety and Health which would be celebrated worldwide on the 28th of April 2022. He was speaking during a press conference at the county offices Wednesday.
Simba said this year’s DOSH theme would be “lets act together to build a positive safety and health culture,” adding that, more than ever, there was a need for heightened safe working environments due to the coronavirus pandemic that has assaulted humanity.
He clarified that “mental health” should not be misconstrued to mean “mental illness” because DOSH was mainly concerned with the labour force’s emotional well-being because it contributes a great deal to the anticipated output that leads to economic development of nations.
He said the International Labour Organization (ILO) encourages the celebration of the World Day for Safety to promote the prevention of accidents, and the magnitude of work-related injuries, diseases and fatalities on families worldwide.
Simba noted that a worker’s medical and injury clinic would be held from the 9th -21st of this month in all DOSHs regional offices as a commemoration of incapacitated workers to honour the memory of the victims of occupational accidents and diseases.
“While we honour the injured and fallen workers, we appreciate that injuries and fatalities can be prevented and reduced at all workplaces including the home where house helps and cooks work,” he said.
In addition, he said the major mission of DOSH was to ensure that every worker irrespective of their status in society returns safely to their homes at the end of the working day, by preventing injuries and deaths.
However, he acknowledged that there’s a lot that requires to be done since a number of local workplaces posed serious dangers to the workers due to exposed machines that could cause fatalities if they snapped.
Last month, a worker in an industry in Thika town boiled to death when he accidentally fell into the boiler, which might not have been safely fenced off. Apart from that, a number of construction workers have lost their lives when buildings collapse due to negligence.
By Veronica Bosibori
