A group of parents from Kisii County have called upon schools to improve payments of school guards in a bid to curb insecurity following rising incidents of theft in the region.
Speaking on Monday at Marani DEB primary school, area parents lamented increased cases of theft in institutions in Marani sub-county and attributed the menace to poor payments of school watchmen.
According to them, many school guards were allegedly reporting to institution up to 10pm before going back home due to the poor pay without even the supervisors realising.
“There have been cases of theft in most of our institutions with thieves taking an advantage of the absence of watchmen to loot. Many of these guards are poorly paid with some getting as little as Sh3,000 per month. This demotivates them with some failing to execute their duties till morning,” said Rodgers Anyona.
His sentiments were echoed by Mr Jackson Marube who claimed that some guards were colluding with the thieves to vandalize institutions.
“The poor pay to school guards I agree is the problem. We can curb the rampant cases of theft if salaries of our brothers are increased. Some of them are going to an extent of colluding with thieves to steal from our institutions,” he said.
However, Mosocho primary School head Mr Peter Oginda faulted the government for little funding and urged parents to contribute to institutions in a bid to curb the incident.
“Yes we agree that our watchmen are poorly paid and that is my concern. However, our schools do not have enough resources due to poor funding for the government. We need support from parents to curb these incidents,” he said.