LETTERS: Cost of private security services to rise

Private security services, especially guarding, have been available at almost dirt cheap. But not for long anymore as industry regulations gazetted on July 5 by Interior Secretary Fred Matiang’i now seek to enforce the payment of the statutory minimum wage among other regulatory compliance requirements.

It would surprise many to learn that guards who work at some big and quite profitable companies as well as for government earn well below the minimum wage at as low as Sh8,300 against the Sh 27,993 statutory rate for a 12-hour, six days a week shift.

Outside the guarding sub sector, in cash in transit, close protection, investigations, security equipment installation and other private security services, wages are better but with new regulations, the cost of this is set to rise as well.

The industry was largely self-regulating before 2016. In June of that year, the Private Security Regulation Act was passed ushering in government regulation for the industry. The three years since then means the industry has presumably been preparing for compliance. The gazetted regulations is the final legislation that give the guidelines and detail on how the compliance is to happen. This has introduced a compliance cost over and above the required payment of the minimum wage.

There is a wide array of private security services that have come under regulation. These include protecting or safeguarding of a person or property, private investigations and consultancy, car- tracking or surveillance, importation, sale, installation, operation and maintenance of security equipment, use of animals in security work, access control installation, crowd control and management and security training. Others are locksmith services, advising on the provision of the above services, the managing, controlling or supervising the provision of any of the above services as well as being an agent for any of the above services.

Individuals offering any of the above services have also come under regulation and will have to register with the authority and renew their registration annually. Some of the other people under regulation would include fraud investigators working in a bank, security managers and officers at an industrial plant, close protection operatives (body guards), door supervisors (bouncers), event day stewards and marshals, private game rangers, corporate heads of security and their staff, among others.

Other areas beyond wages and licensing that will lead to a rise in costs include the regulated powers of arrest, search and withholding of a person’s identification documents. The power and procedure of a private citizen’s arrest is such a sensitive power that can easily infringe on people’s rights and freedoms and thereby give rise to liability. In this case, it is required that an arrest should be conducted by at least two guards.

The power to search must be witnessed by another guard and conducted by a person of the same sex meaning that a search station should have a minimum of three guards; a male and a female conducting the search and one who stands in as a witness to the search. Searches must also be conducted in an area not within the building the person being searched is seeking entry meaning that many business premises will be required to come up with new search areas away from points of entry.

Training and assessment costs are also bound to raise the cost of private security services. It is now mandatory that all staff undergo annual training of at least a week in the year. Training has previously been almost only exclusive to the big companies as the middle and small ones have not invested appropriately in training. A lot of people train on the job, often hired at a whim and provided uniforms at the assignment itself. This loophole is now considerably covered and as such the cost of training is bound to be transferred to the users of private security.

Basic equipment for work will now be required and where such equipment needs calibration, it is required to be calibrated annually. Equipment like the simple hand-held scanner will require an annual calibration certificate to certify it works.

Regulation in general comes with a cost to business. This is a cost that will definitely be transferred to users of private security who are also under the legal obligation to only use licensed private security firms and officers.

It is the hope of business that regulation is coming to help improve the sector and standards and everyone can find a niche to operate in the new regime and profitably so. For users, it is the hope that this translates to professional, better service and reliability from the licensed providers.

Nkaari Martin K. country director, Elite Security Academy.