Government-community dialogue can help fight crime

Most of the youth in Korogocho have basic education and are unemployed.

“For some reason, the Government does not recognise the potential of youth in informal settlements, but instead focuses on the underprivileged neighbourhoods they come from,” says Adie Okelo, 60, a village elder in Kisumu Ndogo, Korogocho.  The authorities consider them outcasts, uncouth thugs, he adds.

FIGHT CRIME

“There are no roads, only two public primary schools, and no secondary schools, yet Korogocho has been in existence since the 1970s. The only additional notable development is the Korogocho Health Centre, which was built in 2015,” Mr Okelo told DN2 recently.

In addition, the lack of vocational centres means that young people in the area continue to live without any skills or training that they can use to improve their lot.

This, according to Mr Okelo, has contributed to the high incidence of crime. Many researches have exposed why youth in informal settlements court crime but even the Inspector-General of Police doesn’t bother reaching out to these communities, he added. “Instead, he issues shoot-to-kill orders, which don’t help as there is no government-community dialogue,” he notes.

Village elders could assist in fighting crime in the slums in a sustainable manner, as they know who is a newcomer and who has returned from jail.

PARTNERSHIPS

But the Government rarely recognises the role of village elders, since it doesn’t pay them. “We only get recognised when senior officials are being vetted and they want the signature or fingerprint of a village elder,” he revealed.

There’s also lack of trust between village elders and the police. “The police treat us like anyone else in the village. They never call us for meetings,” said Mr Okelo

The levels of poverty in Korogocho are high. Most of the families have one meal a day and most children have a cup of githeri, which costs Sh10, for lunch.

The 2013 KNBS and SID "Pulling Apart or Pulling Together Survey", which explored Kenya’s inequalities, indicated that Korogocho slums in Ruaraka suffered inequalities of a higher magnitude as it exhibited high poverty levels, with an abnormal total dependency ratio (TDR) of 0.701, higher than the country’s average of 0.564. It is expected that these ratios have currently sunk at a low given the 2015-2017 economic crunch in Kenya which saw major job losses and the plummeting cost of living.

POVERTY AND INEQUALITY

A 2012 Urbanisation in Africa study by the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) established that cities in Africa has failed to bring about inclusive growth which, in turn, has resulted in proliferation of slums, urban poverty and rising inequality. This is in tandem with a newly-released report on Youth Economic Development in Ruaraka Constituency by the Youth Congress, which indicates that when youth in urban slums are pushed out of jobs they become socially and economically vulnerable because of the inability to access business financing.

The Youth Economic Development report further notes that informal settlements within Ruaraka Constituency, such as Korogocho, Baba Dogo, Mathare North, Utalii and Lucky Summer, are home to a considerable number of youth who are locked out of employment for lack of a certain level of education and skills.

In Korogocho, many of the minors do not attend school. In addition, the mortality rates are high. Many children have been orphaned, and have no one to care for them. “There are many children-headed families. This leaves room for a child in a crime-prone area to seek to earn a livelihood though crime,” says Mr Okelo.

INVESTMENTS

It is for these reasons that the Youth Congress and the Youth Entrepreneurship Network have encouraged youth investment groups to create jobs for the youth to eradicate poverty. Both the Youth Congress and the Ruaraka Young Entrepreneurs Network have roped 10 youth groups into the Youth Economic Development programme, from which they access grants to boost their businesses.

So far the 10 youth groups from Baba Dogo, Mathare North, Ruaraka, Utalii and Korogocho have been trained on business management and bookkeeping and have received grants in the form of business equipment such as high pressure car washing machines, hatcheries, sewing machines, water tanks, solar panels, batteries and welding machines.

The Youth Economic Development programme has also designed a marketing plan for the businesses, their value-addition and possible expansion.

“If the grants could be increased, they would assist more youth and secure their future,” says Mr Okelo.

Meanwhile, Mr Raphael Obonyo, the convener at the Youth Congress, says that 45 of the 100 groups that had applied for grants qualified, but the available grants could only be given to 10. “We call upon the Government, private sector and non-governmental organisations to really consider investing in the youth in our informal settlements,” says Mr Obonyo.

HELP

When you look at youths who come from jail, none comes back with a skill even after two to three years, notes Mr Okelo.

“They never stay here for more than six months before they are killed by the police. The Ministry of Public Service, Youth and Gender should get involved and help such youth set up small businesses. Without food on the table it can be difficult for them to reform,” he argues.

Shoot-to-kill orders don’t seem to help. “The other day I warned one youth about the shoot-to-kill order but he told me the police will also die. He then challenged me: ‘If I leave what I am doing, what will you give me to do to sustain myself?’ As a village elder, where do I go and report such a youth?”

The Youth Economic Development report calls for sustainable development models that drastically eliminate inequalities such as lack of cess to business financing and education and high unemployment – challenges that further aggravate the cycle of poverty among the youth. “There is an urgent need for the government to rethink sustainable economic development models that build resilience among the youth in the face of diminishing unemployment opportunities, changing technologies, urban population growth and high cost of living,” says Mr Obonyo.

Indeed, to abandon crime, the youth in the slums need practical alternative ways of earning a living that are sustainable.