Registration certificates and licenses of nine private security companies have been cancelled by the Private Security Regulatory Authority (PSRA) over non-compliance.
PSRA said in a notice that the firms, that include Victory Protective Services Africa Limited, Victory Consultants Limited, Bedrock Security Services Limited, Bedrock Security Alarms Systems and Product Limited and Senaca East Africa Limited, have breached four regulations of the Private Security Regulation Act No. 13 of 2016.
Others are Hipora Security Solutions Limited, Salama Fikira International (Kenya) Limited, Marco Security Limited and Superb Marketing Solutions Limited.
Besides violating the terms and conditions attached to their certificates of registration as corporate private security service entities, the axed firms have also failed, declined, and/or refused to comply with minimum wage regulations and breached Section 33 of the Act having engaged workers who do not have guard force numbers issued by the regulator as proof of registration.
“Pursuant to the Private Security Regulations Act number 13 of 2016, the Authority hereby notifies users, prospective users, representatives of users of private security services and the general public that it has cancelled the certificates of the companies,” PSRA said in a statement.
The legal notice and cancellation of the licenses come at a time when reforms are on the horizon for workers and employers, with plans to increase salaries of security guards by Sh30,000.
It is at the back of this that the authority has rolled out ways to make it mandatory for the private security firms take home the minimum gazetted wage.
Employers who will fail to adhere to the requirements shall be liable to a fine or imprisonment in the case of a natural person, and Sh2 million in the case of a corporate.
In December 2019, the PSRA, which is charged with security training, improving personnel welfare and assessment of people employed in the private security industry, started fresh vetting and licensing of all private security players in Kenya to ensure that players in the private security space uphold the standards laid out in the Private Security Act and to ensure that they act professionally.
The regulator also prescribes a standard curriculum and assessment standards for private security training to be undertaken at every training institution.
