The nature of employment contracts and the kind of benefits that are enjoyed by security guards from Samburu community working in Nairobi

Abstract

This study established the nature of employment contracts and the kind of benefits that are enjoyed by security guards from the Samburu community working in Nairobi. The study adopted a survey design, and data was collected through questionnaires, which were applied to 200 security guards who had been randomly selected from 5 administrative clusters in Nairobi. The findings indicated that security guards were not properly contracted with the right documentation, did not enjoy social security benefits, lacked information about trade unions, and were not enjoying their right to collective bargaining. The study focused on particular employee welfare issues to determine the extent to which their rights were granted. The issues were job contraction and employment benefits, as well as employee exposure to knowledge about trade unions. In examining these issues, the study looked at the following indicators, which provided evidence for granting or non-granting of employee rights: shelter, diet and investments made by the employees; existence of job contracts, insurance cover, retirement benefit plan and health cover as well as membership to a trade union. It recommended that the Government of Kenya should enforce a proper job contraction for security guards, as well as have them accorded all the employment benefits stipulated by labour laws; the trade union movement in Kenya should reach out to security guards; and that the parliament should come up with legislation which will prohibit engagement of security guards outside the employment of duly registered security companies.