Hiring in Kenya: the work permit, the contract and a salary worked through, step by step

Move someone who is already in Kenya

A Class D permit covers specific employment with a specific employer. A foreign national who moves to a new employer needs a permit for the new employment.

A Kenyan citizen needs no permit. Their move turns on the notice their current contract sets, which is at least 28 days in writing for monthly-paid staff.

Check the role is open to a non-Kenyan

Each Class D permit is decided on its own. The skills or qualifications must be ones not available in Kenya, and the engagement must benefit Kenya.

The application names the Kenyan understudy being trained for the role, with their qualifications and the dates the training runs. Where there is none, it gives the reasons, and the steps the employer will take to engage a Kenyan trainee while the permit runs.

Set the contract up right

A contract of three months or more is in writing. It states the particulars the Employment Act lists, among them the job, the place of work, the hours, the pay and how it is worked out, and when it is paid. They are given within two months of the start.

A probation period can last up to six months, and be extended by up to six more with the employee's agreement. During it, either side can end the contract on seven days' notice, or the employer can pay seven days' wages instead.

Pay is in Kenyan currency, due at the end of each month for monthly-paid staff. The employer provides reasonable housing, or pays enough on top of the wage to rent it, unless the contract folds a housing element into basic pay. A monthly employee the General Wages Order covers, without free housing, is owed a housing allowance of 15% of their basic minimum wage.

The normal week is up to 52 hours over six days, or 60 for night work, with a rest day in every seven. Overtime is paid at one and a half times the normal hourly rate, and at twice the rate on the rest day or a public holiday. Normal and overtime hours together come to no more than 116 in any two weeks, or 144 for night work.

Know the employee test before you engage a contractor

Kenya's Employment Act treats as an employee anyone employed for wages or a salary. The contract of service can be oral or written, express or implied.

A casual worker kept on for a month or more of continuous working days is treated as paid monthly, with 28 days' notice.

Someone who comes to Kenya to work for up to three months, paid or unpaid, needs a special pass, not a visitor's pass. A longer role needs a work permit, and a role that needs a work permit goes through employer of record.

Work out what a salary costs you and what the employee takes home

Take a resident employee on KES 150,000 a month.

The NSSF counts pay up to its upper limit of KES 108,000. Each side pays 6% of the first KES 9,000 under Tier I, and 6% of the next KES 99,000 under Tier II.

SHIF and the housing levy are worked out on the whole salary, with no cap.

Income tax is worked out after the employee's NSSF, SHIF and housing levy come off, on KES 137,145 here. The bands take 10% of the first KES 24,000, 25% of the next KES 8,333 and 30% of the rest, KES 35,926.85 in all. The personal relief of KES 2,400 then comes off the tax.

A non-resident has no personal relief. Someone not ordinarily resident in Kenya, employed there for up to three years at a time, is exempt from the NSSF where they pay into a social security fund abroad that the Cabinet Secretary has approved.

NSSF, SHIF and income tax are each paid by the 9th of the next month. The housing levy is paid by the 9th working day after the month ends.

Know the leave your people are entitled to

End employment on the law's terms

A contract for monthly-paid staff ends on 28 days' written notice, unless the contract gives more. Either side can pay the wages for the notice period instead. Staff the General Wages Order covers are owed a month's notice.

Before a dismissal for misconduct, poor performance or physical incapacity, the employer explains the reason in a language the employee understands. The employee can have a colleague or a union representative with them, and the employer hears what they have to say.

For an employee in a union, a redundancy needs a month's notice to the union and the labour officer. For an employee outside a union, the notice goes to them in writing and to the labour officer. Selection weighs seniority, skill, ability and reliability. The employee is owed a month's notice or wages, leave due paid in cash, and severance of at least 15 days' pay for each completed year of service.

A termination is unfair where the employer cannot show a valid and fair reason and a fair procedure. Compensation can reach 12 months' gross pay. A complaint to a labour officer is made within three months of the dismissal.

A certificate of service is owed wherever employment lasted four weeks or more.

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