Peace and Security lobby, Kenya Community Support Centre (KECOSCE) has singled out poor parenting in Mombasa as one of the aspect that has triggered insecurity in most parts of the county.
The Organisation states that most parents have become strangers to their own children thus causing even a lot of problems to the minors who learn both good and bad deeds from the society.
In a meeting aimed at discussing the progress made in curtailing insecurity in Nyali and Kisauni Sub counties, which was attended by security agents, the local administration from both Sub counties and community activists from various organisations held in Nyali on Monday, KECOSCE Executive Director, Phylis Muema noted the importance of concerted efforts in taming insecurity in the entire Mombasa county.
Muema noted that some parents have left their responsibilities to teachers and the society, completely failing to monitor their children whether at home or outside their vicinity.
“We have clearly noted that during school holidays, crime rate shoots up, this is an indication that school going children are indulging in crime because their parents care less about them,” she noted.
Employment
The activist further disclosed that lack of employment should not be used as scapegoat for increased insecurity in Mombasa, neither should it justify youth indulgence in crime.
“Some of these young people are underage, they do not even posses national Identity Card, how can they be employed at 14 years? They should be in school or under their parents watch,” she reiterated.
Ms Muema also revealed that locals’ intelligence reports have been mishandled by police officers in different police stations within Nyali and Kisauni Sub counties.
“We recently encountered an incident where one of our community leders was slashed and seriously injured by criminal gangs in Kisauni because she reported to the police about the young people terrorising locals but the police recklessly revealed the secret security leads to the suspects. This should stop, we need proper ways of handling such important information from the public to the police and vice versa,” noted the Peace and Security activist.
Graft
Muema also noted that some of the police officers have been accused of engaging in graft practices thus proving futile the efforts of distabilising criminal outfits in Nyali and Kisauni areas.
“For the last six months we have been implementing this ‘Peace and Cohesion in the Wards and Crime Preventing’ supported by the REINVENT project and funded by UKaid, we have received complaints from the public about police harassment instead of our police battling insecurity at grassroots level,” she disclosed.
She further called on proper working relationship between police and the public, swift ways of handling information and urging parents to take their responbilities seriously.
Response
Nyali Deputy County Commissioner (DCC) Geoffrey Githinji admitted that there have been series of complaints from the public about corrupt police officers but the top security officers in the county are working on solving the problem.
“All the concerns raised in this critical forum including poor parenting, corrupt police officers, laxity among a section of security agencies, mistreating locals’ intelligence reports among a range of concerns. What we need now is for everyone to play their role as required and hasten the already working relation between police and the public,” he stressed out.
[Changamwe Deputy OCPD Peter Lerpasare (in police uniform) during the security engagement forum organised by KECOSCE. Photo/Kelvin Baraza/April, 15, 24].
The meeting also aimed at engaging the Mombasa County Assembly members who remains critical in improving security at the grassroots level.
Patrick Mbelle, Bamburi Ward MCA noted that the MCA’s are currently working with the Mombasa county government to facilitate installation of streetlights in various parts of the county.
“As political leaders we are playing our roles, however, our police officers should help us manage criminal gangs in our areas,” he stated.
Other MCA’s who raised their concerns on the security agencies laxity were Kadzandani MCA, Fatuma Swale Mote (Fatuma Kushe), Amriya Juma Boy (Mjambere), Mariam Baimu (Freeretown), Khamis Nyota (Ziwa la Ng’ombe) and Allan Katana (Shanzu Ward) Morgan Matsaki (Mtopanga and Mwakirunge Ward MCA Khamis Mwinyi Mtoto.
