Workplace Managers May soon be “State Guests” due to SMOKING ZONES.

Lango, B. (2016). Workplace Managers May soon be “State Guests” due to SMOKING ZONES.  Intel Fire Group of Companies Blog. Nairobi, Kenya. October 02, 2016.

Many companies in Kenya are yet to conform to the new tobacco regulations legal notice 169 of 2014 that came into force 26 September 2016. These regulations are enforced to operationalize the tobacco control act 2007 after a long protracted court battle that pit the government on one side and tobacco companies on one side. There is a saying that goes “The arms of the government are literary long” and looking at the tobacco act and now the regulations, one thing stands out the tobacco industry in Kenya has just experienced the long arm of the government. Even though statistics indicated that at least 97% of adult Kenyans supported the prohibition of smoking in restaurant, the number of smoking Kenyans are still high. The tobacco control act 2007 intention therefore is to ensure that the right of every Kenyan to a smoke free environment from second cadre smokes. This law is therefore very particular and in section 33 lists the prohibited smoking areas and in 33 (2) (a) prohibits smoking in offices and workplaces including corridors, lounges, eating area, reception areas, lifts, escalators, foyers, stairwells, toilets, laundries, and amenity areas of such places. In short the act is saying “Managers or owners of workplaces do not allow smoking at the workplace unless it has a designated smoking zone and to the tobacco industries “one who chases you away does not tell you leave. Do not wait until you are told.”

Recommended Designated Smoking Zone within a Workplace

Remember the occupational health and safety act 2007 only required workplaces to designate and put a SMOKING ZONE sign for places where smoking were allowed within the workplace. Well, this is not the case with the tobacco control act 2007.  Section 35 of the act allows managers or owners of a prohibited smoking area to provide a specially designed smoking area but this has to comply with certain conditions. These conditions includes establishing a room that is separate, enclosed and sealed from the floor to the roof with a door, and that it is ventilated in such a manner that air from the room does not re-circulate or drift to other areas within the workplace. To cap it all the Tobacco Control Regulations Legal notice no. 169 of 2014 require managers or owners of premises who intends to establish a designated smoking area in accordance with section 35 of Tobacco control act 2007 to get a certificate of compliance from the Director of Medical Services. This simply means that your manager should not allow smoking until a designated smoke zone is established and a certificate of the zone compliance given by ministry of health.

So how do you comply if you are not interested in having a SMOKING ZONE within the workplace? Simple,  as the manager or owner of the workplace ensure that the recommended signage communicating prohibition of smoking within the workplace is displayed as required. Again the regulations has gone too far to specify the exact format of the warning messages and even specify the paper size, the font type to be used, fore and background color. No jokes here as non-compliance may earn you the manager or the owner of the premises a fine not exceeding fifty thousand Kenyan money or a guest of the state for a term not exceeding six months, or both the fine and being a state guest.  As a manager or owner of workplace therefore take care and implement the regulations required as the option of BEING A STATE GUEST MIGHT NOT BE SO WELCOMING. LET THE STATE BE YOUR GUEST BUT NOT VICE VERSA.

The writer is a PhD Generalist in Service Delivery and Project Management.

Contact: benard.lango@gmail.com

A simple Security Procedure During Church Service

Author Reference

Lango, B. (2016). A simple Security Procedure During Church Service. Intel Fire Group of Companies Blog. Nairobi, Kenya. October 02, 2016.

On March 24, 2014 the Daily Nation (March, 2014, Online version) reported that 100 suspects had been arrested when attackers sprayed gunfire to worshipers leaving two people dead and several injured. First forward to May 3, 2016 and leaflets are found outside a church in Likoni estate on a Sunday and a jerrican containing what was believed then to be petrol sending panic across the church with most members who heard the news staying away. This then begs the question, how should the churches be secured during religious services? Does securing these churches mean procuring security guards at the main entrance whose major duties according them is sweeping the metal detector on worshippers as they get into church? Is there a standard procedure in securing the churches whether with guards or not? It is for this particular reason that this articles focuses on the Kenyan local churches to provide a simple standard procedure in securing the churches.

1. Gate Manning

One of the major duties of security or guarding officers or even selected security team at the church premises is the manning of the gate. This should be clearly demarcated as either exit or entry and in cases where the gate is one, the entry and exit sections must be established. The manning activities entail screening the incoming worshippers without discriminations albeit not religiously. The officers undertaking the screening must be able to assess the incoming individuals from a distance to be sure whether the individual is a safe screen or suspect screening (“your instinct will never fail you”). While performing the screening the device should use the procedure of top-to-bottom and back-and-front swipe. These devices are not ritual tools to be passed on someone before they get into the church but this, friends is a serious task bestowed on officers to screen for metals, weapons and suspicious devices that should not get the church blessings.

An experience with a church in Changamwe Mombasa Kenya gave me the impression that the guarding officers had only one objective to securing the church and this was standing at the gate and ensuring that each person had the metal detector passed through them. Worse part was when the detector signals a metal, the officer would ask whether it is a phone and in some instances assumes it is, and lets the owners through “home and dry”. The only identification of these officers was their heavily branded uniforms which by a glance one would note the pride the wearers had in cordoning the cadre. Adding surveillance to their procedure would elevate the pride to a full command officer (read the most intelligent African the church can ever have).

2. Church Surveillance

Apart from gate manning, surveillance is one of the most importance aspects of securing the church and its occupants during services irrespective of how religious the sessions are. Surveillance does not mean that as a security officer you take it upon yourself to undertake the march of honor inside the church while the service is ongoing. This will most probably be construed by members as the work of “devil” using you as its “security officer” to distract them from focusing on their conversation with their maker.

Surveillance therefore entails the security officers apart from manning the gate, allocates part of the team to walk around the church compound both within and outside ensuring that there is no suspect activity, no suspect material or item, no suspect procedure, and that the entire compound is secure both internally and externally. Studies have proven that the presence of security officers within and outside the church compound would act as a deterrent mechanism for any trouble-maker to think harder before engaging in any sinister activity. The church as one of the believers is protected by the blood of Jesus Christ but it is paramount that the same blood guides the church and its security officers in detection, identification, deterrent, and elimination of any threat before actual harm for Jesus died to save even the most sinful of them all. After the service there must be a closure of the security procedure.

3. Closure Procedure

Immediately after the church service the security officers should not leave the church premises with the members in toes. Instead there should a standard procedure in bringing to closure the heavy security that was being envisioned during the church service back to the not so heavy one after the service. This is what my layman knowledge would term the low-peak-to-high-peak security procedure and the high-peak-to-low-peak procedure. The latter is overwhelmingly ignored by even the most profound of the guarding units who forms the majority of the officers. There must be a standard procedure of any form in a church security closure setting and this must be unique to the players. This must entail a security brief to the church officers in charge and the chief security officer of the securing company or relevant arm of the authority. On this therefore we have a closure on this article based on a scenario of the church goer you are and that the security happenings of your church are your greatest concern. If you are not very Christian then this does not relevantly concern you at the moment but the next may. IT IS IGNORANT TO BELIEVE IN THE PROTECTION BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST AND FAIL TO FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES THE BLOOD REQUIRES YOU TO PUT IN PLACE TO ENSURE YOU ARE PROTECTED.

The writer is a PhD Generalist in Service Delivery and Project Management.

Contact: benard.lango@gmail.com