Challenges Associated With Terrorist Risk Reduction Strategies in Kenya: a Case Study of Nairobi’s Central Business District

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the challenges associated with terrorist risk reduction strategies in Nairobi. The study was guided by 3 specific objectives: to establish the vulnerability factors that make Nairobi‟s CBD attractive to terrorist threats; to identify risk reduction strategies employed to counter terrorist attacks in Nairobi‟s Central Business District; and to determine challenges of implementing risk reduction strategies in Nairobi‟s Central Business District. The study adopted the descriptive research design. The study targeted Nairobi City Inspectorate Staff with the following cadre of staff; Constables, Sergeants, Senior Sergeants, Inspectors and Chief Inspectors in the Nairobi City Inspectorate who are 1,125 in number. The sample size for the study was 111 respondents and stratified random sampling procedure was used to select respondents included in the sample. The questionnaire was adopted for collecting data for the study as it gathered information from a large population of respondents. The researcher adopted key informant interviews to complement data gathered through the questionnaires. Descriptive statistics were used in analyzing data which present the information in summary form inorder to be able to show trends in the data through means, frequencies and percentages. The qualitative data was presented in verbatim to complement the quantitative data. The major findings and recommendations were as follows: There exist some vulnerability factors that make Nairobi Central Business District (NCBD), but the most highly rated was corruption in different departments especially government agencies which affect the implementation of risk reduction strategies. There is also urgent need for the government to budget and provide resources to deal with the terrorist, more personnel and provision of more specialized and modern equipment to handle the counter terrorism. The legislative and legal framework needs also to be improved and updated to the current trend of terrorism. The public ignorance of county laws and lack of cooperation thus public awareness and education is mandatory. A large population of the youth is unemployed thus attractive to terror attacks especially in the county, study reviewed. More energetic youth should be recruited to reduce this gap. Traffic congestion and hawking in the city is a major problem and thus the government should decongest the CBD off public vehicles and hawker‟s inorder to reduce overcrowding which is a target for terrorist attacks. The security from county inspectorate department is not adequate and therefore metropolitan policing program should be included. The Kenyan government should adopt and introduce a tested model of UK of (4 Ps); Pursue, Prevent, Protect and Prepare to protect the Kenyan citizens against the increasing terrorist attacks.