Security Services in Kenya: Peter Bach Presents Diplomatic Protective Services (DPS)

Interview with Peter Bach, Group Managing Director at Diplomatic Protective Services (DPS)

What is your assessment of the security services sector in Kenya?

There are over 2,500 security companies in Kenya and these companies employ more than 300,000 people. This means that the private sector is a huge employer here. However, only a few companies care about their employees, give them decent salaries, train them properly and are actually following specific security standards. This is one of the biggest problems here in Kenya at the moment. Recently, the Kenyan government introduced a security law which will most certainly help to increase the confidence of the public and the standards for employee training because the companies and their employees will now need to be licensed. These standards are normal in the United States, Europe and around the world. The police will also have an extra pair of eyes on the ground which will make Kenya safer than before.

One of the problems of some African countries is that anyone can be a security guard, so to speak. People would rather pay less and hire someone with no proper training. What does your company do to solve this issue?

We have the same problem here in Kenya. Our company has set up high standards that we would like to follow, and in doing so, offer superior security products here. This is especially important when clients come from Europe or the United States and they are used to certain standards that they cannot receive in Kenya. The security standards should be identical so we can take care of our clients properly. When they come to Africa, they should not feel like they are not protected here as well as they are at home. When we look to recruit employees in Kenya, there are many people that would like to be security operators. However, they assume that security is merely sitting or standing, that it is a simple physical presence, which is not correct. People need to be trained and vetted properly. This is one of the missions for the Kenyan government in raising the standards in the security industry. With this new law it will gradually get better.

You have over 26 years of combined professional security, law enforcement and military experience. Could you give us an overview of your professional background?

I started in 1985 with security in the Army in Sarajevo. After that, I joined the Custom Border Protection Unit where I was part of a special mobile group which operated on sea and land. We worked to combat crime, human trafficking, drugs, weapons smuggling and so on. I am also a war veteran of the Yugoslav War. After the war, I decided I had had enough of government service and moved into the private sector. First, I went to the UK, the US, Ireland and various other countries for diverse training. I was extremely lucky to have very good instructors who gave me unique training. We still have trainers from the SAS, the SBS, the Royal Military Police, the Metropolitan Police, the Secret Service, and other organizations. We were actually one of the first companies to get approval from the SIA, the British Security Industry Authority, to operate and give training outside of the UK. DPS is only one of two or three companies to receive this approval outside of Europe, which was a great success.

Diplomatic Protective Services (DPS) is a fully private owned company established in 2011 as a subsidiary of DPS Group International. The company is specialized in providing security services across the entire security spectrum. Could you give us an overview of the company’s history?

In the late 1990s, we opened a security company and gradually, our clients became more demanding. A few companies joined together to create DPS Group and to offer a variety of different services under one umbrella. Our larger clients have now moved to Africa and to the third world with investment opportunities. Wherever the clients are going we are going. This was one of the reasons we opened DPS in Kenya in 2011. We want to provide the same standards the clients are getting in Europe or the United States. We are actually working all over Africa, based out of Nairobi. The clients are flying from Europe, the United States and Asia and would like to visit Kenya. We are able to protect them from our various headquarters in Kenya, South Africa, Mozambique, Sudan, Congo, and Tanzania.

DPS provides security services, special services, investigation services, practical training and lecturing, as well as consulting. What are your main areas of focus?

What makes us better than other security consultancy companies is that we care about our clients and our employees. We are very responsive, we have affordable prices, we strive for employee excellence, and we do our best to keep our clients happy.

Our main goal is definitely security consultancy. With this we can prevent the problems before they occur. This is one of the biggest tasks we face. There are many security consultancy companies here, but they are not as unique as us. We have different industry sectors in Kenya. We have retail, hospitality, private sectors and more. Most of these other companies have just one security consultant who handles everything for all these industries. However, one industry could be completely different from the other. The hotel industry could be quite different from retail. There are different approaches which security consultants must take. In our company, we have security consultants who have worked specifically for years in each of these different industries, so they know what kind of problems they may face before they occur. This is very important in security consultancy. We take our executive protection very seriously. Our executive protection or close protection is unique in how we approach the client and how we protect the client. Every close protection detail is different and is dependent on the client when they come here. Their likes, dislikes, and many other small things are taken into account before they even arrive. For example, if a French client is coming, I will assign a close protection operator that speaks French and understands the French culture so he knows what standards they expect and their preferences. I cannot use someone with no knowledge of France. We try to satisfy clients on many different levels, not just our physical presence. The main defence for the close protection operator is brains, not weapons. When you use weapons it is too late, you have already failed. It is very important that we try to implement and to use every skill we have. Security advance party is when we prepare ourselves for the client before they arrive utilizing risk assessment and other skills. The clients do not usually see this because they are not here, but all this preparation for us is very important. From the first moment when they step off the private jet in the airport, they will have the same services as in Europe or the United States. This includes security system integration, CCTV, alarm systems, access control and so on. We provide huge CCTV systems that have more than 200 to 300 cameras. We design the systems and have implemented them in Europe to monitor the highways. It is a combination of physical and technical security. In Kenya, there are many CCTV systems and alarms, but it is very important that when the system is installed, it needs to have someone who can monitor the cameras, otherwise there is no point to having them. There needs to be someone who will continue to service and provide maintenance after they have been installed, which we provide. Most companies in Kenya are simply installing these systems and not taking care of the client after that. If they do maintain the system, they do not give proper training to the people monitoring the CCTV systems. You do not need ten security guards if there is one guard who is very good at monitoring in the control room, who can then send the other security operators through the sites where potential problems may be.

How would you describe the company’s philosophy and what makes you different from the competition?

What makes us better than other security consultancy companies is that we care about the clients and the employees. We know that if our employees or our clients are not happy, then we cannot grow. We are very responsive, we have affordable prices, we strive for employee excellence, and we do our best to keep our clients happy. We always listen carefully to them. Our services are customized to their needs. Most security companies provide security, but they do not provide specific security or operators. If we have a hotel, then we will provide security officers experienced in hospitality security. We will not give them security guards from construction fields. The knowledge of the guards working in the hotel needs to be much higher than in the construction field. For example, the five star hotels that we are now working in need five star security. There is no point to having five star facilities, good swimming pools, good food, rooms, and then the clients receive one star security. DPS provides specific security operators for the sector where they work. If we are dealing with the retail sector and shopping malls, all those security operators need to be trained differently. This is the difference between us and other companies. We try to have a personal touch with all of our clients, which many of the big companies do not do. We are very responsive. If our clients need something, we can provide same day service as our normal standard, not as something they need to pay for additionally. We really try to satisfy our clients and our employees.

You have a global presence. Do you have any expansion plans to open in new countries in the next two years?

Definitely. We are operating all over the world, now. In some countries we operate in, we have offices, while in others we have only a security presence. We have been active in Colombia with clients, NGOs on the border with Syria, Turkey, and Greece, also in the Congo and so on. We are operating globally, but we are more focused on Africa, now. We are looking forward to expand our offices to every African country.

Are you looking for partners or investors to be able to do that?

Yes. We have recently started to look for investors with our board of directors. Until now, we did not need investors. We are currently looking for external investors because in Kenya, many of the big security clients are large embassies. These embassies are looking for large security companies which have multiple offices, many security guards, vehicles, and other services. We are not a big company. We have about 400 employees in Africa. But, the small companies can provide better services compared to the larger ones. This is because we have that personal touch, we are very responsive, and we can decide things immediately and do not need to go through multiple channels to come to the right decision. Unfortunately, the client demand is that you need to have a certain number of vehicles or employees. So, to gain new clients, especially embassies, we need to become bigger. When we expand, we would like to keep the same standards. We do not want to run before walking. When we know how to walk properly in Africa, then we will start to run. Everything needs to be set up as we have planned. We need to take care of every client the same whether they are large or small, not just take care of the big clients because they pay more.

What is your vision for the future of the sector and the company in the next 2 to 5 years?

I hope that we will grow, but in the proper way and that we can maintain the same services. It is very important for us to raise the security standards here in Kenya. I was also involved in the setup of security standards in one of the countries in Europe before they implemented licensing. After they implemented those standards, the services in the country increased enormously. You can see that the security services they have are much better. This also needs to happen in Kenya, but it will take us two to five years. For now, the implementation of the private security law is definitely the best thing the Kenyan government has done. From here, they need to follow this law and set up the proper training and licensing, which will not be easy. Our main aim now is to assist the Kenyan government in pushing security services to that higher level. For us, it is very important that the security personnel operate at a greater level than they currently do in Africa. When our employees see the client, they need to be positive, professional, polite, customer orientated, have a smile on their faces and show that they are happy that the clients or visitors are coming to the premises. They need to be friendlier while still staying professional. We should not see security officers that are very serious and crossing their hands. The employees think that this will make them more professional, but it has nothing to do with professionalism. I can still be very positive, speak with the clients, be friendly to a certain level, and keep a proper distance while maintaining my professionalism on the highest standards which we have put into place. The clients need to see that they are welcome to come to the premises while still being properly protected. This is what is missing in Kenya.