Shocking Details Of How City Guards Are Exploited & Underpaid You must have encountered the men and women who put on sparkling uniforms while protecting sensitive installations, banks, courier services, offices, embassies and malls are deceptive. These are the security guards from well respected firms and are charged with security of the place they man. Well, behind the uniforms are desperate souls of individuals who are exploited, underpaid, hungry and angry. The highest paid earning just Sh7, 000 monthly. Some go without food while doing critical work of offering security. It is a pity that one can guard or escort property worth billions of shillings daily while hungry. Many others walk home after work. Surprisingly, once they stop you some of us just treat them with disrespect and probably shout at them wondering why they should stop you in the first case. You will remember a case of former Deputy chief justice, Nancy Baraza who lost her job for pinching a guard at Village market. Just put yourself in their shoes; would you like someone to treat you like you do to them? The sector is full of highly demoralized workers who sleep at Uhuru Park during the day and will by night form the first line of defence in protecting lives and multi-billion shilling investments against criminals, if not terrorists — with only rungus (clubs) in their hands and a strong spirit. But unable to afford even bus fare to travel home daily, they opt to kill time in the park, waiting to report to their workstations come nightfall. Despite being exposed to criminals, most guards are untrained for the joband its no wonder that 200 guards are killed in the line of duty every year, with thousands others sustaining various degrees of injuries. Exploitative employers. In an interview with the standard, the guards at Uhuru Park admit that they are badly exploited. Laban Shibambo, 65, paints a deplorable picture of the sub-sector. He worked for one of the leading security firms in Nairobi for eight years till he was fired recently after publicising his plight. “I started with a net salary of Sh2,800, which had gone up to Sh6,300 by the time I was laid off. With a family of nine to feed upcountry, and no other employment opportunity coming his way, Shibambo, who was all through assigned to a night shift guarding a top mobile phone dealership firm in Nairobi, gradually developed survival tactics as the meagre pay proved inadequate. “I stayed at Kawangware and would slowly walk to and from work for about two hours daily. On various occasions when the landlord locked my house over unpaid dues or I felt too tired, I would come to Uhuru Park, spend the day relaxing alongside my fellow ‘sufferers’ and report to work in the evening,” he says. “This is a trend adopted by many other guards, some who take to ‘preaching’ in a bid to earn extra coins and end up quitting the job to start their own churches.” Yet, lazing in a public park all day was not his main worry. “I would buy roasted maize or groundnuts worth five shillings and take it with water. That was enough for the night,” he recalls. His colleagues at Uhuru Park admit leading a similar lifestyle. Like Shibambo, one confesses that he is at times reduced to tears on seeing how a German Shepherd dog at his place of work is treated. “The dog has a chef assigned to it and is much valued than him. It is fed on fresh meat, milk, bread and soup while I watch, running on empty. I have not been trained to handle animals, but I would be left with the fierce dog by my side every night, sometimes with instructions to feed it. You can guess the rest,” he states shyly. Shibambo says his wife would always call him to inquire if his perennial failure to visit his family upcountry was a result of an extra-marital affair, with his explanations of poor pay proving implausible to her. Many other guards we talk to admit to leading similar deplorable lifestyle. Most private security firms offer little, if any, professional training to the guards, exposing their clients to serious security risks. “Most of them are clueless about their work. They just undergo casual training that primarily involves marching around for one or two weeks. One thing they ensure they are taught without fail is how to salute the bosses at the place of work,” says Isaac Andabwa, the secretary general of the Kenya National Private Security Workers’ Union. “They have no detailed training whatsoever on defence, protecting life and property as well as public relations.” This is confirmed by guards from various firms, who say some of their colleagues report to work minutes after recruitment. “When a guard resigns or is fired and there is no one to fill the vacancy, we have seen people called and ordered to report to work straight away. But we are all taught how to salute bosses as failure to do this paints a negative picture of the employer among clients,” reveals one guard who works for one of the top security firms in the country, manning the main entrance to one of Nairobi’s leading retail outlets. Andabwa, whose union has a membership of 40,000 guards, blames their poor welfare on exploitative employers. He notes that while most leading security firms pay an average monthly salary of between Sh5,000 and Sh18,000, the situation is despicable in many mushrooming security firms. “Some, despite securing multi-million shilling contracts with clients, pay as little as Sh800 a month. This is way below the minimum wage.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Oct 2013 06:37:55 +0000
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