MAPPING THE NATURE OF LABOUR RISKS ON CONSTRUCTION SITES IN ELDORET TOWN, KENYA: PREVALENCE, RECURRENCE, WORKERS’ EXPERIENCE AND SUPERVISORY PROFILE

Labour is the largest controllable input on most building sites, yet the risks it carries are seldom described with the precision needed to manage them. This study profiled labour risks in construction projects in Eldoret Town, Kenya, distinguishing how widely each risk is encountered (prevalence) from how often it recurs (frequency). Guided by the Theory of Planned Behaviour, a convergent parallel mixed-methods design was used. Questionnaires were completed by 81 contractors, site engineers and foremen (88% of 92 sampled) across four zones, and 12 manual construction workers were interviewed. Data were analysed with SPSS and thematic analysis. Accidents and injuries were the most widely encountered risk (97.5%), followed by strikes and labour disputes (74.1%), labour shortage and skill mismatch (53.1% each), poor working conditions (44.4%) and labour turnover (32.1%). Frequency told a different story: accidents were mostly rated rare (M = 2.14, SD = 0.89), whereas skill mismatch recurred most regularly (M = 2.86, SD = 1.08), with 79.0% of respondents reporting it at least occasionally. Workers traced mismatch to artisans (fundis) who bring unskilled helpers onto skilled tasks, while shortages and turnover were situational, driven by workload peaks and wage competition. Labour risk in Eldoret is therefore common but uneven. The study recommends skills verification at the point of engagement, risk-management training for supervisors, and enforceable minimum site-welfare standards.