Written contracts and particulars for Kenyan staff
When the Kenyan Employment Act requires a written contract, the two-month deadline for written particulars, and how long to keep them afterwards.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Running a business businesses in Kenya
Plenty of Kenyan employment relationships start on a handshake. The new shop assistant is told the hours and the pay, starts on Monday, and everyone means to "sort out the paperwork" later. Later becomes never, until there is a dispute about pay, hours or notice, and nobody can say for certain what was agreed.
The Employment Act is written to prevent exactly that. It sets out when a contract must be in writing, how soon the employee must have the key terms on paper, how long the employer must keep them, and what happens in a dispute if the employer cannot produce them. This article walks through each rule and how to build them into your hiring routine.
Contracts of three months or more
Section 9 of the Employment Act, in the consolidated version published on Kenya Law, requires a contract of service for three months or more to be in writing. The same applies to a contract for work that cannot reasonably be completed within three months, even if it is not described in months at all. The Act also says who prepares it: the contract is drawn up by the employer.
Two practical points follow. First, a "temporary" arrangement that keeps being extended can cross the three-month line without anyone deciding it should; once it does, the written contract is required. Second, the duty to produce the document sits with the employer, not with the employee who never asked for one.
The Employment Act on Kenya Law sets out sections 9 and 10 in full, and is the version to rely on when you draft or review your standard contract.
Written particulars within two months
Section 10 deals with the written particulars of employment: the key terms of the job set down on paper. The Act requires them to be given no later than two months after the employment begins.
Many employers combine the contract and the particulars in one document, signed on or before the first day. That is the simplest way to meet both sections. Where the contract comes later, perhaps because a senior appointment is still being negotiated, diarise the two-month deadline from the start date and make sure the particulars reach the employee before it passes.
Keeping them for five years after employment ends
The retention rule catches employers out because it runs from the end of the relationship, not the start. Section 10 requires the employer to keep the written particulars for five years after the employment ends.
So a contract signed by a long-serving employee who leaves this year must be kept for five more years from the leaving date. Clearing out a former employee's file when they go is a mistake. The wider set of employee records the Act requires is set out in section 74: a written record for each employee including leave taken and due, maternity and sick leave, rest days and warning letters, which an authorised officer may inspect for the preceding thirty-six months. What an inspection involves is covered in employee records a labour officer can ask for.
Who carries the burden of proof in a dispute
Here is the consequence that makes the paperwork worth doing. Under section 10, if the employer cannot produce the written contract or particulars in legal proceedings, the burden of proving the terms falls on the employer.
A worked example in words: a former employee claims they were promised a higher salary and a longer notice period than the business says it agreed. If the business has a signed contract, the document speaks for itself. If it has nothing, the business must prove what the terms were, against the employee's account, without the one document that would settle it. Notice periods matter in such disputes too: the Act provides, for example, that a contract paying monthly is terminable by twenty-eight days' written notice.
Sending contracts for e-signature in Achekam
Getting contracts signed quickly is easier when nobody has to print, sign, scan and return them. In Achekam, any document can be sent for electronic signature, whether an uploaded PDF, a document composed from text blocks with merge fields, or a saved template. A standard employment contract kept as a template can be filled with each new employee's details and sent out.
The sender places signature and initials fields on the document, so the employee initials each page and signs at the end, and chooses whether signers sign in order or all at once. For a contract, signing in order makes sense: the employee first, then the director who countersigns. An expiry date and reminders keep it moving. When the last signature is in, the signed PDF and a completion certificate are filed back into Documents. The signing console opens from the Sign button and from the dashboard.
Filing signed contracts with the employee's record
Once signed, the contract belongs with the rest of the employee's file. Document Centre is a folder-based store: keep a folder per employee, upload or move the signed contract and particulars into it, and tag each document by type so they can be searched later. If terms change, upload the amended contract as a new version; earlier versions are kept, so you can show what applied at any date.
Setting up the employees themselves is quick. People can be added one by one or imported from a CSV file, and the import checks every row and writes all rows or none, so a half-loaded staff list never results.
A hiring paperwork checklist
- Will the job last three months or more, or involve work that cannot be done within three months? Then a written contract is required.
- Is the contract drawn up by the business, from an up-to-date template?
- Will the written particulars reach the employee within two months of the start date?
- Has the contract been signed by both sides and filed in the employee's folder?
- Is there a rule that files of former employees are kept for five years after they leave?
Pick three current employees at random this week and check that a signed contract is on file for each. If any is missing, start there; the cost of fixing it now is far smaller than proving the terms later.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
