15. Public Health Act, 1921 (Cap 242)

The Act provides for the legal framework on sanitation and housing standards.

Quick Link: https://new.kenyalaw.org/akn/ke/act/1921/38/eng@2022-12-31

· Part IX of the Act contains provisions dealing with sanitation and housing.

· Sections 115 and 166 of the Act prohibit any nuisance or conditions injurious or dangerous to health on premises owned or occupied by people. The local authority (now, county governments) are charged with taking all lawful, necessary and reasonably practical measures to maintain the areas in clean and sanitary condition and prevent any danger or injury.

· Section 117 of the Act provides that it is the duty of the health authority to prevent or remedy danger to health from unsuitable dwellings. This includes preventing erection or occupation of unhealthy dwellings, erection of dwellings on unhealthy sites or on sites of insufficient extent or overcrowding and to take proceedings against anyone who violates the same. In a sense therefore, the health authorities have authority to prevent construction or occupation of houses if they do not meet the health criteria set out.

· Under section 118 of the Act, the nuisance that must not be there in dwellings or premises is defined to include: vessel, railway carriage or conveyance that is dangerous or injurious to health; dirty or verminous dwelling that are dangerous to health or likely to spread infectious disease; stream, pool, sewer and other bodies that are so foul or in a state or constructed in such a way that they are offensive or injurious to health; any well or water source whether public or private which is polluted or unsafe for human consumption; any dwelling or premises which is so overcrowded as to be injurious or dangerous to the health of the inmates, or is dilapidated or defective in lighting or ventilation, or is not provided with or is so situated that it cannot be provided with sanitary accommodation to the satisfaction of the medical officer of health; any public or other building which is so situated, constructed, used or kept as to be unsafe, or injurious or dangerous to health; any occupied dwelling for which such a proper, sufficient and wholesome water supply is not available within a reasonable distance as under the circumstances it is possible to obtain; among others.

· Section 120 of the Act provides for the procedure in case an owner of a building fails to comply with a health notice issued by a medical officer. Such owner may be issued with summons to appear before a magistrate who may make orders accordingly. Section 120(3) of the Act imposes a fine of no more than Ksh. 200 including costs incurred for the hearing. The fine of Ksh. 200 appears too low as to act as an effective deterrent and is certainly a function of the fact that this law was passed over 100 years ago (in 1921).

· Under section 122 of the Act, the court may order health authority to execute certain works where the owner of the building cannot be found or is not known with the costs of such works being a charge on the property causing the nuisance.

· Section 123 of the Act empowers health authority or any of its officers/medical officer/sanitary inspector on the order of a magistrate or any police officer above the rank of Inspector to enter any building or premises for purposes of examining for any nuisance at all reasonable times.

· Under section 124 of the Act, a court may order an owner of a building to demolish a dwelling or building where it is of the view that a nuisance exists and such dwelling is so dilapidated or so defectively constructed in a manner that alterations or repairs are not likely to make the dwelling fit for human habitation or remove the nuisance.

· Section 125 of the Act gives power to the Medical Department to collect, investigate and publish facts as to any overcrowding or bad or insufficient housing in the various districts (now counties, possibly); to inquire into the best methods of dealing with any overcrowding or bad housing so ascertained to exist; and to make or publish recommendations as may be necessary in respect of the result of any such investigation or inquiry.

· Under section 126 of the Act, the Minister may on the advice of the board make rules and confer powers on local authorities, magistrates and owners as to: inspection of buildings; the construction of buildings, provision of proper lighting and ventilation and prevention of overcrowding; periodical cleansing and treatment of dwellings; and the subdivision and general lay-out of land intended to be used as building sites, the level construction, number, direction and the width of streets and thoroughfares, the limitation of the number of dwellings or other buildings to be erected on such land, the proportion of any building site which may be built upon and the establishment of zones within which different limitations shall apply and of zones within which may be prohibited the establishment or conduct of occupations or trades likely to cause nuisance or annoyance to persons residing in the neighbourhood.

· Section 126A of the Act provides that every municipal council and urban and area council may if so required by the Minister for local government (now Cabinet Secretary for Devolution), make bylaws for: controlling the construction of buildings, and the materials to be used in the construction of buildings; controlling the space about buildings, the lighting and ventilation of buildings and the dimensions of rooms intended for human habitation; controlling the height of buildings, and the height of chimneys (not being separate buildings) above the roof of the buildings of which they form part; prohibiting the erection or use of temporary or movable buildings, whether standing on wheels or otherwise, and for prohibiting or restricting the use of tents or similar buildings for business or dwelling purposes; for requiring and regulating adequate provision for the escape of the occupants of any building in the event of an outbreak of fire; preventing the occupation of a new or altered building until a certificate of the fitness thereof for occupation or habitation has been issued by such local authority; to compel employers to provide housing for their employees; and to compel owners to repair or demolish unsafe dangerous or dilapidated buildings; for regulating sanitary conveniences in connection with buildings, the drainage of buildings (including the means for conveying refuse water and water from roofs and from yards appurtenant to buildings), the cleansing, drainage and paving of courts, yards and open spaces used in connexion with buildings and cesspools, and other means for the reception or disposal of foul matter in connexion with buildings; regulating excavations of any kind in connexion with buildings; regulating wells, tanks and cisterns for the supply of water for human consumption in connexion with buildings; regulating stoves and other fittings in buildings (not being electric stoves or fittings), in so far as by-laws with respect to such matters are required for the purposes of health and the prevention of fire; regulating private sewers and communications between drains and sewers and between sewers; regulating the erection and use of scaffolding and hoarding during the construction, demolition, repair, alteration or extension of any building; prohibiting, securing the removal of and regulating projections and obstructions in front of buildings, and projections over streets.

· Section 126B empowers a local authority to relax the requirement of building by-laws made thereon where it considers the operation of such by-laws to be unreasonable in relation to any case and subject to the consent of the Minister responsible for local government.

· Under section 126C of the Act, the local authority has power to either pass/approve or reject plans of a building depending on whether they are in conformity to by-laws and rules or not.

Under section 126D of the Act, the local authority has power to require the removal or alteration of any works where it is of the view that they are not in compliance with the rules, in addition to taking proceedings against the owner for the contravention