Civil Society Organizations Programmes on Criminal Activities in Kisumu County: a Case of Vocational and Civic Education in Kisumu East Constituency

Abstract

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the world over have invested immensely to empower the youth to achieve self - sustenance with the aim of reducing their propensity to be involved in criminal activities. However more ground need to be covered towards complete transformation of the youth. This study sought to establish the influence of Civil Society Organization programmes on youth criminal activities in Kisumu County. The study was guided by the following objectives: to establish how vocational training programmes supported by CSOs influence youth criminal activities in Kisumu East Constituency; to assess the extent to which CSOs support on establishment of small and medium enterprises influences youth criminal activities in Kisumu East Constituency; to examine how CSOs’ civic education programme influences youth criminal Activities in Kisumu East Constituency and to determine how Civic Society Organization Structure influences youth criminal Activities in Kisumu East Constituency. The study adopted descriptive cross-sectional survey design which incorporated both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Systematic random sampling was used to choose a sample from the youth who have benefitted from the CSOs programmes in Kisumu East Constituency. The target population was 438 respondents drawn from the 5 wards of Kisumu East Constituency. The study employed Yamane (1967:886) to calculate the sample size for primary population, and assumed confidence level at 95% while census method was used for the key informants. A pilot study was conducted in Kajulu Ward on a sample comprising of 10 youths. The study adopted a semi-structures questionnaire to collect data from respondent. The instruments were validated using content validity while correlation coefficient was used to measure reliability. Data analysis was done using statistical package for social sciences version 21 and findings presented using frequency distribution tables, means and standard deviation were used to analyze descriptive statistics while inferential statistic were used to test relationship between variables in the study. The study revealed that acquisition of vocational skills increases the chances of employment and links young people‘s competences with employer’s needs, the increased employment reduces youth involvement in criminal activities represented by 79.3% of the respondents. The study also established that CSOs linked youth with Micro-finance institution to access soft loans without surety to start their own business represented by 80.4% of the respondents however, several business are not properly managed to meet the demands. The study further established that Civic Education being offered by the CSOs has the capacity to facilitate self-governance and of character modelling recording a mean of 1.9. Further, it empower the youth to demand for good governance whose pillars are accountability, transparency, participation and equity. This shall reduce instances of injustices which was one of the reasons for criminal activities. From the study it was established that Civic Education empowers the youth with non violent skills of conflict resolution represented by 82.6% of the respondents.