The number of staff workers leaving national museums into teaching has created an acute shortage in the institution.
As the workers migrate to the universities as lecturers, this is posing a huge problem to the sustenance of the museums. Cabinet Secretary for Sports and Culture Hassan Wario said the trend of experts migrating to institutions of higher learning are attracted by high perks offered to them.
“We have lost a lot of workers and apart from Nairobi University, the museum has a lot of expert researchers on botany and zoology. We also have great historians in the facility. We have at least 60 workers with PHDS and we fear we might also lose them to the institutions,” he added.
Wario was speaking during an induction of the National Museum Board where he lamented that key researchers in the organisations were now drifting away.
He hinted that it is very hard to compete with universities which are emerging at a fast rate and also offering better pay packages for the workers.
Wario said the government was looking for more entrepreneurial ways to raise money for the sustenance of the staff and for the better running of the museum.
“We are proposing avenues like souvenirs including postcards, mugs and postage stamps for selling to people as ways to promote the museums. This way, the organisation will not have to rely fully on government,” he added.