Court upholds Sh30,000 minimum wage for security guards
By Zadock Angira, February 25, 2025The High Court has upheld the Private Security Regulatory Authority’s (PSRA) legal notice setting the minimum gross wage for guards at Sh30,000 per month.
The ruling came in a case that challenged the notice published in November 2023.
John Kipkorir sued on behalf of the Private Security Industry Association, arguing that no public participation occurred before the PSRA took the action. He asked the court to declare that the PSRA had violated articles 10 and 118 of the Constitution.
He also argued that the responsibility of setting and enforcing minimum wages lies with the Ministry of Labour, not the PSRA.
But Employment and Labour Relations Court Judge Mathews Nderi Nduma disagreed.
“In the final analysis, the petition was abandoned by the petitioner and is struck out by the court, and in any event the same lacked merit and stood to be dismissed, which the court proceeds to do,” Nderi ruled.
The PSRA had warned employers that they faced a Sh2 million fine if they disobeyed the minimum-wage directive.
Petition closed
Soon after the agency issued its directive in November, the Association of North Rift Security Firms sued in the Eldoret High Court to challenge it.
In December, the association won orders stopping the implementation of the legal notice.
On January 16, Eldoret High Court Judge Wananda Anuro ordered that the petition and the notice of motion of application be marked as settled and the file was marked as closed.
The PSRA says the minimum pay for guards should be Sh18,994 with a house allowance of Sh2,849.11 and overtime allowance of Sh 8,156.81, totalling Sh30,000.
The statutory deductions will be: NSSF (Sh1,080), Social Health Insurance Fund (Sh825), PAYE (Sh1,229.75), and the affordable house levy (Sh450).
But the Labour ministry had, in 2022, set the minimum wage for private night guards at Sh16,959 in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and Nakuru.
Under official guidelines, a guard working in former municipalities was supposed to earn a minimum of Sh15,722 per month, while their counterparts in other areas were expected to earn Sh9,672.
Reports indicate that some security firms earn millions of shillings but pay guards peanuts. Some charged their clients as high as Sh50,000 per guard but paid their staff a paltry Sh10,000.