High Crime Rate On Socio-Economic Development Of Selected House Hold Groups In Nairobi City County, Kenya.

ABSTRACT

Social development and social justice cannot be achieved in the absence of peace and security, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. Insecurity has emerged as a major dilemma across the world particularly in the urban setups which hinder economic growth, development and social progress. This study therefore sort to analyze the implication of high crime rates on social economic development in Nairobi City County specifically in Kawangware. The specific focus of the study was to determine the most prevalent forms of crime in Nairobi County, to analyze the social costs of high crime rates in Nairobi County, and to examine the economic cost of high crime rates in Nairobi County. The study was informed by Rational and learning theory. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The target population for the study was composed of selected selected-households in Kawangware in Nairobi City County, Community Policing Committees, District Peace Committees, civil society organizations, Kenya Police, and private security companies. It utilized a sample size of 384 respondents who were sampled using simple random sampling method. The key informants included representatives of Community Policing Committees, District Peace Committees, civil society organizations, National Police Service, private security companies, hospitals, and insurance companies. The study used primary data which was managed by use of Statistical Packages for Social Sciences while qualitative data was analyzed according to themes and patterns formed. From the findings, it was revealed that lack of morals and values, rape, pickpocketing, drug trafficking, conning, assault, cases of house-breaking and robbery with violence were the most prevalent crimes. Other forms of crimes were terrorism, carjacking and suicides. It was revealed that due to high crime rate communities leave their important activities such as jobs and even some leave their residential, rental houses, worshipping areas, doing exercises, visiting friends or relatives and entertainment places. It was also revealed that the cost of living goes high due to insecurity. For the security heads, it was revealed that the communities work with security officers towards a common interest even though they do not often have a forum to discuss crime issues with them. From the findings, it was revealed that members of the public do not report some crimes in community. In conclusion, murder, rapes, pickpocketing, drug trafficking, conning, assault, cases of house-breaking and robbery with violence were the most prevalent. Terrorism, carjacking and suicides were also mentioned. The socio implications included communities being forced to stop most of their activities in fear of crime. Economic implications was that businesses are lost due to crimes as well as stealing. Strategies like community policing, crime victims assistance, provision of security to people, giving crime awareness, calling for interaction and dialogue, giving immediate response to crime and ensuring information dissemination which helps in crime prevention in Nairobi County. High levels of crime can be attributed to poverty, congestion, drug abuse, increased population, unemployment, increased rural to urban migration and less supervision of children. It recommends that the police population ratio should be increased, the department of internal security needs to come with proper policing policies, and the members of the public should inform the police when they are holding public events for security and the business owners should come up with strategies with their local police on how to improve security and protect their businesses. Recommendation for further studies is that the same research can be conducted in other big urban centers in Kenya such as Mombasa.