Kenya OSHA 2007: Statutory Lift Examination Explained

By Mr. Sumeet Katariya, ElevatorPlus · Published 14 August · Last updated 14 August · ~9 min read · Compliance reviewed by Mr. Sumeet Katariya

In short: Kenya has a specific, quotable statutory lift examination regime. Section 63 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, No. 15 of 2007 requires every hoist or lift to be thoroughly examined at least once every six months by a person approved in writing by the Director, with the report entered in the general register within fourteen days. This guide sets out what section 63 says, what the deadlines are, and why "Africa" is not a single compliance market.

Key takeaways

• It is section 63, not section 91. Section 63 sits in Part VII, Machinery Safety. Section 91 is drinking water. The wrong section number circulates widely in industry material.
• Six months, by a person approved in writing by the Director. Section 63(2). The Act does not call this person a "competent person" or an "authorised person". Those terms belong to other jurisdictions.
• Twelve months if the lift is not connected with mechanical power. Section 63(9) substitutes twelve months for six in that case. Almost nothing in a modern building qualifies, but the subsection exists.
• The report has a fourteen-day deadline into the general register. Section 63(2). Section 123(1) then requires registers to be preserved and available for inspection for at least three years.
• Section 106 pulls in buildings that are not workplaces. Where a lift is used in premises that are not part of a workplace, the Act applies as if they were, and the person in actual use or occupation is deemed the occupier.

What this guide covers: the wording of section 63 · the six-month and twelve-month intervals · who may examine · the general register and its deadlines · defect reporting · the annual audit and workplace registration · penalties · why the regional playbook fails · FAQs.

What section 63 actually says

The Act is the Occupational Safety and Health Act, No. 15 of 2007, now carried by Kenya Law as Cap. 236A. It was assented to on 22 October 2007 and commenced on 26 October 2007.

Section 63(1) sets the standing condition:

Every hoist or lift shall be of good mechanical construction, sound material and adequate strength, free from patent defect and be properly maintained.

Section 63(2) is the operative examination duty, and it is worth reading in full because every deadline in the Kenyan regime is inside it:

Every hoist or lift shall be thoroughly examined at least once in every period of six months or after any modifications or extensive repairs or within a shorter period, by a person approved for the purposes of this section by the Director by certificate in writing, and a report of the result of every such examination, in the prescribed form and containing the prescribed particulars, shall be signed by the person carrying out the examination and shall be entered in or attached to the general register within fourteen days of the examination.

Four separate obligations, one sentence. The interval. The trigger events. The examiner's status. The register deadline.

Section 63(10) then limits the scope: no lifting machine or appliance is deemed a hoist or lift unless it has a platform or cage the direction of movement of which is restricted by a guide or guides.

The examiner is "approved", and the word matters

The Act does not use "competent person" here. Section 63(2) says "a person approved for the purposes of this section by the Director by certificate in writing".

The Director is defined in section 2 as the Director of Occupational Safety and Health Services appointed under section 23. In practice that is DOSHS, within the Ministry of Labour.

Section 55 does use "competent person", but for a different thing entirely. It requires that plant, machinery and equipment be used only for work they are designed for and be operated by a competent person. That is an operating duty, not an examination duty.

The practical consequence is that the appointment is personal and evidenced. It is a certificate in writing, held by an individual, granted by the Director. A firm cannot be approved in the abstract, and a contract that names a company as the examiner without naming the approved individual has not addressed section 63(2).

The fee side of this is on the record too. The Occupational Safety and Health (Fees Charged for Occupational Safety and Health Services) Regulations 2022, Legal Notice 50 of 2022, carry a schedule at Part F for examination of hoists or lifts, escalators, cranes and other lifting machines, with fees calculated per floor and a separate charge for proof load testing.

The deadlines nobody diaries

Kenya's regime is unusually deadline-dense, and the deadlines are short.

Fourteen days. The signed report must be entered in or attached to the general register within fourteen days of the examination, under section 63(2). Not at the next visit. Not at year end.

Twenty-four hours. Where the examination shows the lift cannot continue to be used safely unless repairs are carried out immediately or within a specified time, section 63(3)(a) requires the person making the report to inform the area occupational safety and health officer within twenty-four hours of completing the examination. That officer may then issue an improvement notice or a prohibition notice.

Seven days. Section 63(3)(b) then requires written notice of the examination, in the prescribed form and containing the prescribed particulars, to the area occupational safety and health office within seven days.

Three years. Section 123(1) requires registers to be preserved and kept available for inspection by any occupational safety and health officer for at least three years.

Note where the adverse report goes. It goes to the area occupational safety and health office, not to the Director. There is no requirement in section 63 to send a routine lift examination report to the Director, and material claiming otherwise has confused it with the annual audit under section 11.

👉 Building a Kenyan compliance file per unit? Start from our free lift service checklist and breakdown report templates and map them onto the section 63 deadlines above.

The construction duties that come with the examination

Section 63 is not only about frequency. Subsections (4) to (8) set physical requirements that an approved person will examine against, and they are worth knowing because they define what a failure looks like.

Every hoistway or liftway must be efficiently protected by a substantial enclosure fitted with gates, such that when the gates are shut nobody can fall down the way or come into contact with any moving part. Those gates must be fitted with efficient interlocking or other devices ensuring the gate cannot be opened except when the cage or platform is at the landing, and that the cage or platform cannot move away from the landing until the gate is closed.

The hoist or lift and every enclosure must be constructed to prevent any part of a person, or any goods carried, being trapped between moving and fixed parts, or between the counterbalance weight and any other moving part.

The maximum working load which the lift can safely carry must be marked conspicuously on it, and no greater load may be carried.

For lifts carrying persons, section 63(8) adds three things. Efficient automatic devices to prevent the cage or platform over-running. Cage gates interlocked so the cage cannot be raised or lowered unless the gate is closed, and so it comes to rest when the gate is opened. And where suspended by rope or chain, at least two ropes or chains separately connected with the platform or cage, with devices capable of supporting the platform or cage at maximum working load in the event of a breakage.

Registration, audits and the register itself

Three obligations surround section 63 and are routinely handled by different people in the same building.

Workplace registration. Section 44(1) requires that before any person occupies or uses any premises as a workplace, they apply to register the premises by sending the Director a written notice containing the Fourth Schedule particulars. Item 11 of that Schedule asks specifically about passenger or goods lifts, including type, description and distinctive number, country and year of manufacture, the date of the last thorough examination and by whom it was made, and the maximum permissible working load. Failure to register carries a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand shillings, or imprisonment not exceeding three months, or both, plus a continuing penalty.

The annual audit. Section 11(1) requires the occupier to cause a thorough safety and health audit of the workplace at least once every twelve months, carried out by a safety and health advisor, who issues a report to the occupier and sends a copy to the Director. Section 11(3) carries a fine not exceeding five hundred thousand shillings or imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both. The Act's term is "safety and health advisor", and section 42(1) requires each one to hold an annual certificate of authorization issued by the Director.

The general register. Section 122(1) requires every workplace to keep a general register in the prescribed form, containing the certificate of registration and all reports and particulars required by the Act to be entered in or kept with it. Section 122(2) requires the occupier to send extracts to an officer on request. Section 122(3) makes contravention an offence.

So the lift examination report is not a standalone document. It is an entry in a register that also holds the registration certificate and everything else the Act pushes into it.

Buildings that are not workplaces

This is the provision that decides whether a residential tower is in or out, and it is decisive.

Section 106(1) provides that the Act applies to any premises, not being premises forming part of a workplace, in which a hoist or a lift is used, as if the premises were a workplace and as if the person having the actual use or occupation of the premises were the occupier of a workplace.

Section 106(2) then requires that where a hoist or lift is to be used in such premises, the occupier must, within one month of the date it is first used, send the Director written notice of the address at which it is used.

A residential block with a lift is therefore inside the Act, and the section 63 six-month examination applies, with the person in actual use or occupation carrying the occupier's duties.

Penalties come from the general provisions rather than from section 63 itself, which carries no express penalty. Section 108(1) makes the occupier, or where the Act makes the owner responsible the owner, guilty of an offence for contraventions in connexion with the workplace. Section 109(1) then sets a general penalty of a fine not exceeding three hundred thousand shillings, or imprisonment not exceeding three months, or both, with section 109(2) adding up to ten thousand shillings for each day a continuing offence persists. Where death or bodily injury results from a contravention, section 111 raises the exposure to a fine not exceeding one million shillings or imprisonment not exceeding twelve months.

Why "Africa" is not one compliance market

We work with lift companies across the continent. Wintech Instruments E.A Limited and RENTSTATE LIMITED in Kenya. Elite Elevators and Escalators in Nigeria. Ranssie International Ltd. in Uganda. MS Consult LTD in Ghana.

The operating problems are genuinely similar. Engineers covering long distances between sites. Spare parts arriving on lead times measured in weeks, not days. Mixed equipment ages and mixed OEM origins in the same portfolio. Currency movement between quotation and invoice. Building owners who have never been asked for an examination record and are surprised to be asked now.

The compliance position is not similar at all, and this is where regional content usually goes wrong.

Kenya has a specific, in-force, quotable examination regime with a stated interval, a defined examiner status, a named register and short filing deadlines. We can cite the section number and quote the sentence.

For Nigeria, Uganda and Ghana we are not going to publish a standard, an interval or a section number in this article. Not because those markets lack regulation, and not as a comment on any of them, but because we hold ourselves to citing lift examination requirements from primary government or legislative sources, and we could not meet that bar for those three to the standard we apply to Kenya.

So the honest version is this. Operations generalise across the region. Compliance does not. A single "Africa lift compliance checklist" is a marketing artefact, and using one is how a contractor ends up telling a Kenyan client something that is true in a different country.

Where a market's requirement cannot be verified from the statute, the correct commercial position is to ask the local regulator rather than to reason by analogy from the neighbouring country.

Frequently asked questions

Which section of Kenya's OSHA 2007 covers lifts?

Section 63, in Part VII, Machinery Safety. It is headed hoists and lifts. Section 91 is drinking water, and section 106 separately extends the Act to premises that are not workplaces but contain a lift.

How often must a lift be examined in Kenya?

At least once in every period of six months, under section 63(2), and also after any modifications or extensive repairs. Where the hoist or lift is not connected with mechanical power, section 63(9) substitutes twelve months.

Who is allowed to carry out the examination?

A person approved for the purposes of section 63 by the Director of Occupational Safety and Health Services, by certificate in writing. The Act does not use the terms "competent person" or "authorised person" for this role.

How quickly must the report be filed?

The signed report must be entered in or attached to the general register within fourteen days of the examination. Where the lift cannot continue in safe use without repairs, the area occupational safety and health officer must be informed within twenty-four hours, with written notice within seven days.

Do lifts in residential buildings fall under the Act?

Yes. Section 106(1) applies the Act to premises that are not part of a workplace but in which a hoist or lift is used, treating the person in actual use or occupation as the occupier. Section 106(2) requires written notice to the Director within one month of first use.

How long must lift examination records be kept in Kenya?

Section 123(1) requires registers to be preserved and kept available for inspection by any occupational safety and health officer for at least three years.

What is the penalty for failing to examine a lift?

Section 63 carries no express penalty, so the general penalty in section 109(1) applies: a fine not exceeding three hundred thousand shillings, or imprisonment not exceeding three months, or both, with up to ten thousand shillings per day for a continuing offence. Where death or injury results, section 111 raises this to one million shillings or twelve months.

Is the annual safety and health audit the same as the lift examination?

No. The audit under section 11(1) is a workplace-wide audit carried out at least once every twelve months by a safety and health advisor, with a copy of the report going to the Director. The lift examination under section 63(2) is six-monthly, equipment-specific, and is filed into the general register.

The bottom line

Kenya's lift regime is not vague. It is a single section with an interval, a named examiner status, a register, and three filing deadlines measured in hours and days rather than months.

Most of the failures we see are not examination failures. They are filing failures. The examination happened, the approved person signed, and the report never reached the general register inside fourteen days, or the register itself cannot be produced three years later because the building changed hands.

The fix is to hold the record against the unit rather than against the visit, and to treat the fourteen-day entry as part of the job rather than as administration that follows it.

And when the same question comes in from a neighbouring market, the right answer is to check that country's own statute rather than to reuse Kenya's.

👉 See per-unit examination history, register entries and due dates across an African portfolio. Book a demo →

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• Elevator management software for African elevator companies
• Elevator Maintenance Software in Africa 2026
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• The Complete Lift Maintenance Checklist for 2026

About the author. Mr. Sumeet Katariya is the founder of ElevatorPlus, the Elevator Business Operating System used by 200+ elevator companies across 20+ countries. Compliance reviewed by Mr. Sumeet Katariya.

Sources: Occupational Safety and Health Act, No. 15 of 2007 (Cap. 236A), Kenya Law · Occupational Safety and Health (Fees Charged for Occupational Safety and Health Services) Regulations 2022, Legal Notice 50 of 2022, Kenya Law · Directorate of Occupational Safety and Health Services, Kenya · Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, Kenya