Free employment contract template
A free employment contract template for Kenya, laid out to section 10(2) of the Employment Act, which lists the eleven particulars a written contract of service must state. A contract for three months or more has to be in writing under section 9(1), and section 9(2) puts the duty to draw it up on the employer.
What you still need to do
- Give the employee a copy. Section 9(2) puts the duty to draw up the written contract on the employer — an employee who has never been given one is not the party at fault.
- Check the leave, sick pay and maternity entitlements against the current Employment Act before you fill in clause 9. The Act sets floors a contract cannot write below, and this is the clause most often copied forward from an out-of-date contract.
- If the employee cannot read the language the contract is written in, have it explained to them in a language they understand — section 9(4) requires it.
- If the employee signs with a thumbprint, make sure the witness is someone other than the employer, as section 9(3) requires.
- Register the employee for NSSF, NHIF or its successor, and PAYE where it applies. Those are separate statutory duties and this contract does not discharge them.
- Keep the signed original. The particulars in section 10(2) are what a court or the Labour Office will ask to see if the terms are ever disputed.
Why each clause is here
Every clause in this document is drawn from the provision named beside it, and the wording of each provision was read in the Act itself. Where the law fixes something a document cannot change, this is where it says so.
Section 10(2)(a) and (b) of the Employment Act require a written contract of service to state the name, age, permanent address and sex of the employee, and the name of the employer. The age and sex are there because the Act says so — they are statutory particulars, not profiling. Section 9(1) is what makes the contract written in the first place: a contract of service for three months or more, or for work that could not reasonably be finished within three months, shall be in writing.
Section 10(2)(c), (d), (e) and (j) of the Employment Act: the job description, the date of commencement, the form and duration of the contract, and the date on which the employee’s period of continuous employment began, taking into account any employment with a previous employer which counts towards that period. 🔴 The continuous-employment date is the one most often left out, and it is the one that decides service pay and leave entitlements later — write it down at the start, when nobody is arguing about it.
Section 10(2)(f) and (g) of the Employment Act require the contract to state the place of work and the hours of work. Where the employee works at various places, section 10(3)(d) asks for an indication of that and the address of the employer.
Section 10(2)(h) and (i) of the Employment Act require the contract to state the remuneration, the scale or rate of it, the method of calculating it, details of any other benefits, and the intervals at which remuneration is paid. The interval matters beyond bookkeeping: section 35(1) fixes the notice period by reference to how often wages are paid, so what you write in clause 8 decides what clause 10 has to say.
Section 10(3) of the Employment Act requires the particulars to include terms and conditions relating to annual leave and holiday pay — given precisely enough for the entitlement, including accrued holiday pay on termination, to be worked out — and any collective agreements directly affecting the terms, naming who made them where the employer is not a party. 🔴 The Act sets floors for these that a contract cannot write below. Check the current entitlements in the Act before filling this clause in; it is the clause most often copied from an old contract and left out of date.
Section 35(1)(c) of the Employment Act: where wages or salary are paid at intervals of or exceeding one month, the contract is terminable by either party at the end of twenty-eight days following written notice. Section 35(2) lets the contract provide a LONGER period, which is why clause 10 offers that choice — it does not let it provide a shorter one. 🔴 Clause 11 is not a courtesy. Section 41(1) requires the explanation and the accompanying representative before termination on those grounds, and section 41(2) requires the employer to hear and consider what the employee says. A termination that skips this is where unfair-dismissal claims begin.
Section 9(2) of the Employment Act makes the employer responsible for causing the contract to be drawn up and for the employee’s consent to it. Under section 9(3) the employee signifies consent by signing, or by imprinting a thumb or finger — and that impression must be made in the presence of a person OTHER than the employer, which is why this clause carries a witness line. Section 9(4) requires the employer to have the contract explained to an employee who is illiterate or does not understand the language it is written in.
The provisions, in the Act’s own words
Spacing is normalised for reading. Every word is the Act’s.
A contract of service— (a) for a period or a number of working days which amount in the aggregate to the equivalent, of three months or more; or (b) which provides for the performance of any specified work which could not reasonably be expected to be completed within a period or a number of working days amounting in the aggregate to the equivalent of three months, shall be in writing.
A written contract of service shall state— (a) the name, age, permanent address and sex of the employee; (b) the name of the employer; (c) the job description of the employment; (d) the date of commencement of the employment; (e) the form and duration of the contract; (f) the place of work; (g) the hours of work; (h) the remuneration, scale or rate of remuneration, the method of calculating that remuneration and details of any other benefits; (i) the intervals at which remuneration is paid; (j) the date on which the employee’s period of continuous employment began, taking into account any employment with a previous employer which counts towards that period; and (k) any other prescribed matter.
where the contract is to pay wages or salary periodically at intervals of or exceeding one month, a contract terminable by either party at the end of the period of twenty-eight days next following the giving of notice in writing.
Subsection (1) shall not apply in the case of a contract of service whose terms provide for the giving of a period of notice of termination in writing greater than the period required by the provision of this subsection which would otherwise be applicable thereto.
Subject to section 42(1), an employer shall, before terminating the employment of an employee, on the grounds of misconduct, poor performance or physical incapacity explain to the employee, in a language the employee understands, the reason for which the employer is considering termination and the employee shall be entitled to have another employee or a shop floor union representative of his choice present during this explanation.
An employer who is a party to a written contract of service shall be responsible for causing the contract to be drawn up stating particulars of employment and that the contract is consented to by the employee in accordance with subsection (3).
For the purpose of signifying his consent to a written contract of service an employee may— (a) sign his name thereof; or (b) imprint thereon an impression of his thumb or one of his fingers in the presence of a person other than his employer.
Where an employee is illiterate or cannot understand the language in which the contract is written, or the provisions of the contract of service, the employer shall have the contract explained to the employee in a language that employee understands.