COMMUNITY-BASED SECURITY INITIATIVES AND THE SUCCESS OF NATIONAL SECURITY MANAGEMENT IN AFRICA; A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE KENYA AND RWANDA EXPERIENCE

Abstract

This research set out to explore community-based security initiatives and the success of national security management in the African continent. It also sought to assess the global role of this mechanism in managing national security and to tease out what could be learned and applied in Africa. It sought to isolate the similarities and differences of the impact of this approach on the achievement of national security administration in Kenya and Rwanda and sought to consequently propose suitable guidelines and plans to improve national security management in Kenya. The study was conducted in Nairobi and Kigali and Kiambu and Murang’a as well as the outskirts of Kigali. This study was anchored on the Contingency and the Broken Windows Theory since both capture the nexus between the environment and the actors of community-based strategy. The second theory captures the synergy that can be had out of collaboration between diverse state and non-state agencies within the community and how this can lead to achievement of national security especially when problems are identified early enough and pre-emptive action taken. The study adopted a comparative analysis design where a comprehensive examination of the mechanisms adopted by the two subject countries to reap the maximum benefit of security strategies owned and operated at the community level was done. The researcher targeted a population of 300 and utilizing Yamane's formula, sampled 172 respondents. Numerical information gathered by means of a survey was evaluated with the aid of comparative figures through SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). Presentation of the results was made in proportions (out of a hundred), incidence as well as measures of central tendency. The study found an R-Square of 0.70, 0.92, and 0.86 for Kenya, Rwanda, and the aggregate respectively with the standard error of estimate being 0.23,0.18,0.23. This implies that community-based security initiatives (through vigilantism, private security, community policing) explains changes in success in national security management up to 70 percent in Kenya, 92 percent in Rwanda, and^86 percent in overall. It can therefore be concluded that, community-based security initiatives are key to success of national security management given that, community security is a people-centered approach to tackle interlinked peace, security and development needs.