Twenty-eight items. Fifteen minutes to read. The single best home-security audit you'll do this year.
Most of our residential clients in Kololo, Naguru, Muyenga, Buziga, and Bugolobi already have some form of security — a guard, a wall, an alarm. The question is rarely "do I have security"; it is "is what I have actually working." The honest answer for most homes we audit is: partially.
This is the 28-item checklist our residential team uses on the first walk-through. Read it with a notebook, mark each item as in-place, partial, or missing. Anything in the partial or missing column is your priority list.
Perimeter (8 items)
- Wall is at least 2.4m at the lowest point, with no climbable trees, vehicles, or structures within 1m.
- Wall topping is intact — razor wire, electric fence, or anti-climb spikes — and tested to live in the last 90 days.
- Gate has a vehicle barrier (sliding gate, drop arm, or bollard) separate from the pedestrian gate.
- Gatehouse is enclosed, has a chair, has a working light, and has line-of-sight to both gates.
- Driveway has a turning point so visitors don't reverse blind onto the road.
- Compound lighting reaches every corner; no gaps that an officer cannot illuminate from the gatehouse.
- External cameras cover the full wall line, both gates, and any service-yard access. No blind spots behind the kitchen extension.
- There is a dedicated emergency pedestrian exit on the far side of the compound from the main gate.
Gatehouse and officer (5 items)
- Officer has a written SOP — pinned in the gatehouse, signed, dated within the last 12 months.
- Officer has a panic button connected to a monitored response service.
- Officer's radio works on the operator's network and has been tested today.
- Visitor log records: visitor name, NIN or other ID number, host, vehicle plate, time in, time out.
- Officer has a fire-evacuation route to direct family and staff if the alarm sounds.
House — entry points (6 items)
- Main entry door: solid core, deadbolt at second-leaf, working peephole or doorbell camera.
- All ground-floor windows have grilles, security mesh, or contact sensors wired to the alarm.
- Sliding doors have a locking pin in the track plus an alarm contact.
- Service entrance (kitchen / staff) has the same lock standard as the main entrance — most break-ins enter here.
- Garage roller door has a manual lock for night, plus a sensor on the rolling mechanism.
- Roof access points (skylights, AC mounts) are sealed or alarmed.
Alarm and detection (5 items)
- Panic buttons in the master bedroom, kitchen, and gatehouse — tested in the last 90 days.
- Mobile pendant or wearable for any household member who needs one (e.g. an elderly parent).
- Motion detection in non-occupied zones: corridors, dining room, study — with pet-immune sensors if needed.
- Smoke and heat detection in the kitchen, every bedroom, and the laundry. CO detector if you have a gas connection.
- Alarm panel has cellular + IP dual-path signalling and a 12V battery backup tested annually.
Process and people (4 items)
- Domestic staff are background-checked. Yes, all of them. NIN copy, two references, written terms.
- Family has a code word or duress phrase shared with the response operator — for use if compelled to disarm an alarm under threat.
- House-keys policy is documented: who has a key, what happens when staff leave.
- Family has rehearsed an evacuation drill within the last 12 months — even just verbally walking through it counts.
What it costs to fix the average residence
On a typical Kololo or Naguru audit, we identify 7 to 12 items in the partial or missing column. Cost to remediate ranges from UGX 2.5 million (mostly procedural fixes — SOPs, duress codes, lighting bulbs) to UGX 18 million (alarm panel upgrade, perimeter cameras, grille work). The procedural items account for 40% of the risk reduction at less than 5% of the cost. Fix the cheap things first.
If you would like a written audit against this checklist, our residential practice runs them at UGX 800,000 for properties under 1 acre, UGX 1.4 million above. The audit is yours — independent of any operational quote.