The COVID 19 pandemic is a global health crisis which has introduced different parameters in the work

environment. This is especially true for university employees who have been affected by it. This has led to

introduction of various adjustments to the workplace environment such as social distancing measures of 1.5

meters, wearing of face masks, regular washing of hands, online learning, remote working etc. There are over

22 million confirmed cases worldwide and this shows just how far reaching the virus is within different

geographic areas and communities. The communities which encompass university employees are now faced

with multiple challenges emanating from the risk of contracting the virus itself, to the knock-on repercussions

from containment measures on health, education and livelihood systems. The specific objectives of this study

are to determine the following among university employee during COVID 19 pandemic and they include: to

COVID 19 pandemic is an ongoing global pandemic of corona virus disease 2019 caused by severe acute

respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified from an outbreak in the

Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, and attempts to contain it there failed, allowing it to spread across

the globe (Zoumpourlis et al., 2020). Ultimately it has bought about many deaths for example more than

6.12 million deaths had been attributed to COVID 19 pandemic since March this year (Gollwitzer, et al., 2020).

Africa is expected to be the most vulnerable continent where COVID 19 spreading is having a major impact

(Lone and Ahmad, 2020). The continent confirmed its first case of COVID 19 in Egypt and sub-Saharan Africa

on February, 2020.

Pfizer, Janssen (not currently available) which have been administered 1

and 4

in which the latter two

are booster vaccines. Most people infected with the virus will experience mild to moderate respiratory illness

and recover without requiring special treatment. However, some will become seriously ill and require medical

attention. Older people and those with underlying medical conditions like cardiovascular disease, diabetes,

chronic respiratory disease, or cancer are more likely to develop serious illness. Anyone can get sick with

COVID-19 and become seriously ill or die at any age.

This study is a review of literature on safety standards compliance among universities employees in Nairobi

County, Kenya during the COVID 19 pandemic. The main aim is to check whether safety standards are being

complied among university employees in Nairobi, Kenya during the COVID pandemic.

stoppages on physical learning and embraced online and blended learning in their curriculum. This was done to

prevent and stop the spreading of the corona virus. The university employees were also required to comply with

these directives. All persons should self-monitor for fever and other symptoms such as cough, sore throat, runny

or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills, and fatigue.

Despite the preventative measure kept in place by the Universities in Nairobi, a significant number of university

employees (60%) were infected by the Corona Virus Disease. The overall readiness and response measure for

the infectious disease were not fully adhered to. This in turn brought about prolonged institutional closure, a

significant number of employees contracting the disease and some deaths related to the diseases. As at April,

2020, Kenya had reported 374 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 124 recoveries and 14 deaths. Most of these

cases were concentrated in the counties of Nairobi, Mombasa and Kilifi, Kwale and Mandera with other cases

1. To determine the worker’s knowledge of safety standards among university employees during the

COVID 19 pandemic

2. To determine safety policies among university employees during the COVID 19 pandemic,

3. To establish safety communication among university employees during the COVID 19 pandemic

4. To establish employee participation in implementation of safety standards among university employees

during the COVID 19 pandemic.

was mixed methods that had a combination of qualitative through key informant interviews and systematic

reviews.

The number of universities that participated were three, the number of informants were 36 informants comprising

of 12 informants from each university. The study population constituted of university employees from selected

universities in Nairobi, that is, Jomo Kenyatta university of Agriculture and Technology, Kenyatta University

and Kiriri Women University of Science and Technology. The employees constituted administrative staff.

The study utilized convenience sampling whereby sampling of participants as based on availability. Recruitment

of participants as stopped when the researcher reached saturation point in terms of the information that was

Data on safety standards compliance among university employees in Nairobi, Kenya was obtained from various

documents and key informant interviews. The documents reviewed included the following: Interim guidelines

on management of COVID 19 in Kenya, COVID 19 response by Voluntary Service Overseas. Key informants

were purposively sampled. Key informants mainly constituted the administrative as they were considered to be

more knowledgeable on safety issues in their organizations.

Translation and transcription of audio-recorded data was done by the researcher together with the help of an

experienced transcriber. Audio-recorded data had a unique identification code which ensured anonymity by

removing all names of individuals and institutions that may appear in the transcript. Data were stored in

Using deductive methods and the framework analysis as the starting point, data was analyzed manually using

Excel sheet following the five steps of framework analysis. The following were the five steps of framework

analysis applied according to Goldsmith, (Goldsmith, 2021): familiarization, identifying thematic framework,

A total of 36 respondents participated in the study. There were 12 from each facility. Out of the 36 participants,

20 were males. The ages of the employees who took part in this study ranged from 18 to 60 years old, with an

interquartile range of 25. In terms of education level, the majority had attended up to tertiary education.

One of the participants observed that: The university organizes covid 19 awareness creation sessions regularly

for the employees. The sessions are facilitated by health workers from the ministry of health we are very grateful.

We learnt a lot including promoting prevention measures like mask-wearing and hygiene - employee 004.

A significant number (50%) of employees knew and observed the safety policies that university has set up. Safety

policies set the tone that predisposed both individual and organizational behavior and fills in the blank spaces in

the organization’s policies, procedures and processes, providing a sense of purpose to safety efforts. This one of

the employees reported: We have safety policies in the university such it is mandatory that we wear masks in

public places. We have to wash hands with running water and soap at designated hand washing stations before

accessing University facilities -employee 003.

We have safety policies in the university such as having social distance of 1.5 meters, mandatory vaccination,

regular sanitizing ourselves to prevent spread of the virus – employee 005.

Results show that when workers participate in implementation of safety standards, they own the process and are

more likely to observe and adhere to safety regulation set by the institution. One of the participants observed

Worker’s participation: This study found that the workers were involved in implementing COVID 19 safety

measures. This finding is in line with what Crawford (2019), found in his study in which he established that

worker participation is important in all aspects of workplace changes which are developed to assess work-related

9. Gollwitzer, A., Martel, C., Brady, W. J., Knowles, E. D., & Van Bavel, J. (2020). Partisan differences in

physical distancing predict infections and mortality during the coronavirus pandemic. Available at SSRN

3609392.