DEVELOPMENT-KENYA: Communities Lend a Hand in the Fight Against Crime

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Joyce Mulama

NAIROBI, Jun 14 2004 (IPS) - “I have been carjacked three times in the last five months. It is a miracle how I am still alive after the three horrific incidents. Sometimes I think I am dreaming,” says Chris Namunyu, a banker in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

His experience reflects that of many other residents of this city – which is sometimes mentioned in the same breath as Johannesburg as being one of the so-called ‘crime capitals’ of Africa. About a year ago, however, a number of residents introduced community policing in a bid to combat crime.

Kamanda Mucheke, one of the activists concerned, says this pilot project – in Kiambu, on the outskirts of Nairobi – has shown promising results.

“Every week, we nab about five hardcore criminals who we present to the police. This obviously shows that the community is capable of identifying criminals living among them, and therefore takes charge of its own security,” he told IPS.

One such citizen’s arrest took place earlier this month when Stephen Thuo Muchina, a wanted criminal from Kiambu, was handed over to the police. He and five accomplices were being sought in connection with a series of bank robberies across Kenya. Mucheke says similar community policing projects are now being established in other parts of Kenya.

But in the face of widespread perceptions that crime has spiralled out of control, the police argue differently, pointing to the latest crime statistics.

Officials say that while 7,817 incidents were reported in January this year, 6,575 cases were reported in February – a decrease of 15.8 percent. However, police also admit that although robberies, rape, assaults, break-ins, cattle rustling, car jackings and theft of motor vehicles declined – murders increased.

“These figures show a general decrease in the crime wave. We are trying, but we are not yet satisfied. We want to work harder to bring the crime figures to zero. However, this will not happen overnight. The public should give us time to put in our efforts,” police spokeman Jasper Ombati told IPS.

The figures tend to pale into insignificance beside ongoing media reports of the extent of crime. In April 2004, a local daily published the pictures of 18 people who had been murdered in one month in different parts of the country, on its front page.

According to a police source, most of the crimes recorded in Kenya take place in Nairobi. This finding was echoed in a study conducted by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) in conjunction with the Intermediate Technology Development Group – an organisation that works to increase the number of technologies available to disadvantaged sectors of society.

The 2002 study, ‘Crime in Nairobi’, showed that of 10,500 respondents interviewed for the research, 37 percent had been victims of robbery more than once during the previous year. Approximately 18 percent had been physically assaulted.

Whatever the reality, perceptions of Nairobi as a crime-ridden environment may dampen the enthusiasm of investors and tourists alike.

Makoto Asami, Japan’s ambassador to Kenya, told IPS in an earlier interview that firms from his country were shifting their business to other states in the region, partly because of insecurity in Kenya. The bitter irony is that this will negatively affect the country’s high unemployment rate – often cited as one of the main causes of crime.

Conscious of these developments, government is attempting to make the police force more effective.

A Police Service Strategic Plan envisages a number of reforms being instituted until 2007, to improve the quality of service provided to the public. It also seeks to increase the ratio of officers to members of the public from the current 1:1,150 to 1:650. The UN-recommended ratio is 1:450.

The poor salaries that police are paid have also come under criticism, with some claiming that these result in poor morale amongst officers at best – and corruption at worst. In fact, police have been accused by the public of adding to the crime rate by hiring their guns out to supplement meagre pay.

The Senior Deputy Commissioner of Police, Alice Kagunda, recently refuted these allegations, saying it was difficult for police weapons to be used in crime without this being detected.

Officers were also awarded a salary increment of 115 percent just under a year ago.