Casual Employees
Under Kenya’s Employment Act, 2007 (Cap. 226), a casual employee is defined in Section 2 as follows:
A casual employee is a person:
- Whose terms of engagement provide for payment at the end of each day, and
- Who is not engaged for a longer period than twenty-four hours at a time.
In simple English: You qualify as a casual only if you are hired and paid strictly on a daily basis, and each engagement is limited to no more than 24 hours at a time. It is meant for truly short, day-to-day work with no expectation of ongoing employment beyond that day.
Important related rule – conversion out of casual status (Section 37)
Even if someone starts as a casual under the above definition, the law automatically converts the engagement into a regular (monthly-paid) contract in these situations:
- The person works for a period (or a number of continuous working days) that adds up to the equivalent of not less than one month, or
- The work being done cannot reasonably be expected to be finished within a period (or number of working days) amounting in total to the equivalent of three months or more.
Once converted:
- Wages are treated as payable monthly, and the normal termination notice rules under Section 35(1)(c) apply.
- After continuous work of two months or more from the start as a casual, the person becomes entitled to the same terms and conditions they would have had if they had never been engaged as a casual (Section 37(3)).
Notes:
- The core definition in Section 2 has remained stable through later amendments to the Act (the version available on Kenya Law as of 2024 still uses the same wording).
- Courts look at the reality of the working relationship (continuity, nature of the work, etc.), not just what the parties call it.
Source: Employment Act, 2007 (Cap. 226), Section 2 (definition) and Section 37 (conversion), as published on the official Kenya Law website.