Let’s all play our roles to improve city security
Tuesday’s meeting between Interior and National Coordination Cabinet Secretary Joseph Ole Lenku and the Nairobi county security chiefs to address the rising crime wave within the capital was long overdue.
The city has rapidly gained notoriety as the country’s crime capital; a breeding ground for hardcore criminals committing all forms of crime from cold blood murders to carjackings, kidnappings to armed robberies.
Figures released by the Nairobi Women’s Hospital expose the shocking extent of gender-based violence such as rape within our neighbourhoods.
The decision to start profiling former police officers will certainly help in curbing crime, coming at a time when many of them have been blamed for the rising cases.
The profiling must also extend to serving officers, some of who have been directly linked to crime either by way of renting out firearms assigned to them to criminals or even participating in the actual commission of crimes.
Going forward, all the security agencies will have to work closely to ensure the timely collection and dissemination of crime-related intelligence.
Security agencies must henceforth start adopting a more preventive approach to the fight against crime and move away from the reactionary practice.
The County and the national governments will also have to play their respective roles in this war by providing the necessary resources and political will to combat crime.
The ‘Nyumba Kumi’ initiative has worked elsewhere and we need to domesticate it to suit our realities.
Nairobi residents must also play their part in helping address insecurity in their neighbourhoods by reporting suspicious characters in their midst to law enforcers.
Adequate resources must be invested in this fight if it is to be won.
Caution must, however, be taken when using vigilantes to fight crime. These groups have in the past mutated into gangs that have been difficult to deal with.
Let it not take 100 days for the residents to feel secure in the county. Matters security are immediate as delays may prove fatal.
nneditor@ke.nationmedia.com