First of all we have to make a good distinction from a watchman, security guard and an askari.
An askari is the guy you pay to watch over your home while you are gone during the day (please note, during the day because in the evening someone else comes to take over from the Askari). He really has no purpose, his job is to be a buffer of sorts. He makes thieves think twice because he will be a little bit stubborn going down. Because lets face it any thieves who come stealing during the day are ready to go down for whatever so they are armed and ready for the tasks at hand. So you hire an Askari to make sure the grass is mowed, the lawn is clean and watered and occasionally ask him to keep your housie busy with manly duties and vibes.
A Security guard (pictured above) is a formally trained personnel, most of these guys were army officials or soldiers in their past, but couldn't secure proper jobs after their terms in the infantry so they had to fall back on Security jobs. These individuals are normally hired by Group four, or Sunset Securities or Alarms or Falcon ama Knight Frank for all the jisty guys. A security guard may carry a gun from time to time and or a baton, either way most of these guys hang around a small pick-up with Dogs just waiting for things to go down. Its relatively expensive to hire a Security guard to watch over your home.. so often they are hired by the group (estate management, complex management or rich folk around runda or lavington who can afford their services)
Now the last person is the Watchman. Watchmen normally come in two calibers, the Luhya Watchman and the Maasai Watchman. Anything in between is a thief pretending to be a watchman. (Not to be tribalist _ but hey - I remember when you could have tribal jokes and things would be okay, but these days you have to be extra sensitive waaa!!!) The Maasai watchmen are well respected, they report to work around 6:32pm and come equipped with bows and arrows. Some come with a shield which is normally fichwad behind the watchman hut. They don't take nonsense and a quick to cock the Bow to shot on anything that moves in the middle of the night. The key difference between the Maasai watchman and the Luhya is the price differentials. The Maasai watchman is expensive because thieves are scared of Maasai's in general, but otherwise they both perform the same tasks amicably. The Luhya watchman normally carries a club and is very good at opening the gates and watching over things.
Kenyans couldnt do without watchmen in the 80's and there was no way we could continue with this post without putting them on the TOP TEN list of Stuff Kenyans like.
