An Analysis Of Community Based Policing Initiative In Kenya; The Case Of Nakuru County

ABSTRACT

The Kenyan government adopted Community Policing initiative as a crime fighting tool in the year 2002. The Community Policing initiative was aimed at enhancing security and safety, reducing crime, fear and improving social order. Crime happen on regular basis and continue to be an issue of discussion to policy makers, policing agents, citizens on how best community policing can be tailored to solve these security and safety challenges. This study intended to analyze how community policing initiative has been used in fighting crime. The study endeavored to understand the way the local people perceives various aspects of community based policing and the interactions between the various players in policing. The objectives of the study were to; establish awareness on community policing amongst the policing agents and the local people, establish the relevance of community policing initiatives in fighting crime, identify factors which influences the uptake of community policing initiatives and establish factors which contributes to the sustainability of community policing initiatives in Nakuru North sub county. The study employed descriptive survey design while multistage sampling technique was used. The target population included the community policing committee members from the village clusters in Nakuru North Sub-County. Qualitative data was used which was collected using questionnaires and interview schedules. Descriptive statistics such as percentages, frequencies, mean and standard deviation were used to summarize data. Inferential statistics such as regression analysis was used to infer causal relationship between study variables with the aid of SPSS as tool for analysis. Data was presented using statistical tables. The research findings indicate that there exist statistically significant, negative causal relationship between community policing initiative awareness and crime level according to joint regression model coefficients results. Regression results indicate that usefulness of community policing initiatives have insignificant positive influence on crime level. Uptake of community policing initiatives has a significant negative influence on crime level. There exist statistically significant, positive causal relationship between sustainability of community policing initiatives and crime level according to joint regression model coefficients results. It was concluded that adequate information on community policing is not readily availed to the public officers and this might affect interactions amongst stakeholders. Community policing is significant in improving information sharing between police and citizens and this enables community better understanding of people’s security needs. Conclusions can be made that residents who are more vulnerable to crimes do not necessarily adopt community policing in Nakuru North Sub-County which could as a result of fading levels of trust amongst stakeholders. It was recommended that the security agencies should enhance relationship with the community in a bid to ensure that strong networks exist and this can be done by continuous sensitization to the members of the public on community policing initiatives. Joint problem identification and solving, relationship between security agencies and members of the public should be enhanced through partnerships between the parties. The Ministry of interior and coordination of national government should also ensure that adequate resources are allocated to the National police services to steer implementation of community policing programs.