Analysis Of Community Contribution Towards Community Policing In Makina Village Of Kibra Sub County, Nairobi County

Abstract

Community Policing (CP) involves joint efforts of both the police and the locals to discuss and implement strategies in preventing and reducing crime established through relevant legislations. However, the contribution of the community in community policing has not been adequately analyzed and there is insufficient knowledge in this field. The study therefore provides essential information towards understanding how the community contributes to community policing in Kenya. The main objective of the study was to evaluate community contribution towards community policing in security provision in Kibra while the specific objectives were to analyze the forms and impact of community contribution towards community policing; to establish the level of social media utilization in community policing and other community resources used to enhance community policing. The literature review looked at different forms of Community Policing in different jurisdictions including the United Kingdom, France, China, Brazil, Japan and Mozambique. The Study further used Broken Windows Theory and Democratic Theory of Community Policing to summarize and interpret its data. The research was undertaken in Makina village, Kibra sub county. It used both quantitative and qualitative approaches to enrich its data. The unit of analysis was Makina village with respect to community policing practices and activities. Makina village was divided into three sections which formed the strata. The sampling procedure used was stratified and simple random sampling to identify the respondents in each strata and purposive sampling to identify key informants. The primary respondents were the household heads who were a representative sample of 0.5% (123) of the population of 25,242 residents. The secondary respondents were representatives of the Community Policing committee, business leaders, local administration, National Police Service and members of the focus group discussions. The data collection techniques used were household surveys, key informant interviews, focus group discussions and desk reviews that used questionnaires and interview guides. A pilot study was undertaken as well as peer review to validate the tools of data collection. The study followed laid out ethical considerations and used the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21 for data analysis. The study established that the primary forms of community participation in community policing were reporting crime, participating in community security meetings and elections of community policing committee officials. The contribution of women as a special category was also assessed and the study found that women were actively involved in community policing forums, voicing out their security concerns and sensitizing the community on security. The study further established that financial contributions were made towards security on a monthly basis at an average of KShs. 500. The most common social media applications used to share information on security were WhatsApp and Facebook which had contributed to reduced crime, increased responsiveness to crime reports and more awareness about the activities of the CP committee. Other community resources to enhance CP such as hotlines and floodlights had also led to reduced crime. The study made recommendations to have awareness creation undertaken by the government and community policing committees on the meaning of community policing. There is need to broaden methods of communication using social media and text messages to capture a wider audience. There is also need for further research on the impact of social media utilization in community policing.