House allowance, water and medicine from your employer
Employment Act; State Department for Labour and Skills Development · sources read 2 Oct 2026
Your employer must give you reasonable housing at or near work, or pay you enough rent on top of your wages to get it, unless your pay already includes a housing element. Employers must also provide clean drinking water at work and proper medicine when you're ill.
- Deadline
- A court case under the Employment Act or your contract must start within 3 years of what happened (12 months after a continuing wrong stops)
- Where
- Your area labour office; the Employment and Labour Relations Court
Steps
- Check your contract or collective agreement. If your pay is consolidated to include a housing element, a separate house allowance isn't required.
- Report it to the labour officer in your area. They register your complaint on Form LD 64 and call you and the employer to a conciliation meeting.
- You can also take the case to the Employment and Labour Relations Court, which hears employment disputes.
Watch out
- Food is only owed if it was expressly agreed when you were hired.
- The medicine duty doesn't apply if treatment is free from the Government or under a statutory insurance scheme that covers you.
- The Cabinet Secretary can exclude some categories of workers from the housing rule by Gazette notice.
Who this covers
- Every employee, unless their pay is consolidated to include housing.
- Every employee: enough clean water at the workplace.
- Every employee: proper medicine during illness and, if possible, medical care in serious illness.
Official sources (3)
- Employment Act, 2007 (No. 11 of 2007) labour.go.ke · read 2 Oct 2026
- Constitution of Kenya, 2010 new.kenyalaw.org · read 2 Oct 2026
- Handling of Labour Disputes labour.go.ke · read 2 Oct 2026