By Kamila Karu (Muungano KYCTV) and Jackline Waithaka, SDI Kenya

“Just the other day we lost one of our young boys—he was stabbed by thieves.”

Njoki, Huruma

For youth to participate in local or global issues, space needs to be created where they can take an active lead in decision-making. Youth make up an enormous proportion of Kenya’s population (constitutionally defined as 18–35 years old). They have such a big stake in decisions that affect their communities’ future, but their voices continue to be underrepresented in decision-making processes and other core matters like social welfare dialogues. Urban youth living in informal settlements and low-income communities have experienced marginalization and poor representation in such processes.

In this blog, we describe one local process aiming to counter this trend, and argue that those with power must recognize young voices and create spaces where the youth in communities can participate in decision-making.

Safe and Inclusive Cities

Through its ongoing Safe and Inclusive Cities (SAIC) work, the Muungano Alliance continues to explore ways to encourage youth in the informal settlements where we work to engage on key matters that affect them. The Kenyan SAIC program is led by SDI-Kenya, Plan International Kenya and Uraia. Its focus is (1) reducing the risks that youth face in their communities, especially relating to violence and crime, (2) addressing safety in public transport and (3) accelerating youths’ active participation in public governance.

On safety issues, SDI-Kenya has led SAIC efforts to mobilize, organize, train and engage youth aged 16–24 in Kisumu and Nairobi. Our approach is to provide opportunities for youth to actively weigh in on how they think safety issues in their communities should be addressed, and to engage local community duty bearers on issues of concern about policing and community safety. As much as possible, the youth involved take the lead in designing and executing activities geared towards prioritizing community safety concerns, and in holding discussions with community leaders on how these issues can be tackled.

One such activity is a recently-held community dialogue organized by youth from Huruma, a largely-informal neighbourhood in east Nairobi. One clever strategy by the youth network leading the event was to use film as a tool at the meeting, to hammer home their messages about crime and insecurity in their community and the ways they think safety can be better promoted.

The Huruma youth network dialogue event

The Huruma youth network invited local residents and local administrative leaders to attend and discuss what the youth themselves have identified as issues that are compromising community safety. These are problems like crime, police corruption, drugs and child abuse. Those who came included Samuel Kimani, senior assistant county commissioner for Huruma, Joseph Mwaura, senior Huruma chief, Edward Mateba, assistant Huruma chief, Tom Orwa, representing the office of the ward administrator for Huruma, and Kazungu Bimbo, a local police officer. Then, in a film screening session, both local administrators and community members present were shown a short, compelling film, created by the Huruma youth organising the event, that depicted how groups including youth, area duty bearers like the police, and boda boda riders are involved in crime at community level.

We report more from the discussion, below.

Crime and insecurity continue to scar urban informal settlements. Low-income levels and poverty are linked to increased cases of crime within urban informal settlements. Recognizing the burden of crime and insecurity on the socioeconomic progress of a community creates urgency to adopt specific approaches to address this dire challenge that exists in settlements such as Huruma.

Residents said they experience higher levels of insecurity at night, which often means they can’t carry out their legitimate activities past about 9 pm.

“We are not safe walking with our phones on the road because the snatchers are everywhere. Anyone who walks from work at night, he or she is not safe.”

Jin, Huruma

One key security challenge in Huruma that the youth who live their identified related to boda-boda (motorcycle taxi) drivers, who operate under minimal regulation or control and who are now gradually turning to crime. Boda-bodas are a popular means of public transport in many Nairobi urban informal settlements. It’s a sector largely dominated by young drivers, and one frequently associated with crime and community insecurity, because boda-boda riders are often identified as perpetrators involved in aiding criminals escape crime scenes.

Another theme discussed was a growing trend the youth identified in Huruma relates to how corrupt local police are supporting organized criminal activities, by taking or extracting bribes from law-breakers and criminal gangs. The impact of corruption by police can be far reaching. In the meeting, residents said that they felt the police poorly respond to their concerns and needs, leaving them vulnerable in the face of violence and crime.

“Sometimes we report the case and instead of them helping they come to raid our places.”

Njoki, Huruma

The response of the officials present at the meeting was to urge residents to report cases to the appropriate authorities for action. If residents felt unable to approach their local police, they could go to their area chief or district officer. They talked about the importance of community participation in crime prevention, with the police and the community work together as partners in local crime prevention and control, including through a national hotline, 988, through which people can report cases of crime to the police for action. In this way they considered community safety can be improved through increasing community accountability by making residents active in crime prevention.

 School closures, drugs and child abuse: Schools nationwide have undergone prolonged closure since the outbreak of Covid-19, disrupting learning for 17 million Kenyan students. With this has come big social challenges, like education exclusion and childcare challenges, the effects of which have been particularly severe for children living in urban poor communities, who are especially vulnerable to child labour and sexual exploitation, early marriages, and drug and substance abuse.

The Huruma discussions referred to reports of rises in drug use and indulgence in crime among young school going children aged 14–20, linked to disruption of student engagement in schools. Further, the effects of the pandemic on people’s livelihoods are evident in rising child labour cases, as many children were pushed into the workforce following the schools’ closure, for example as unlicensed boda-boda riders. The youth raised their concerns and challenged area administrators to provide guidance to ensure an inclusive return to school for all school going children after the temporary prolonged closure of schools.

Improving safety and security is really important in Huruma. This event with local administrators is an example of how Huruma’s youth are trying to influence decision-makers and stimulate positive dialogue, including making creative use of film media to portray how crime is specifically affecting their community. In this meeting, youth in Huruma have led in organizing and participating in efforts to address their community’s security concerns. This kind of event provides an effective model for scaling up youth participation in key matters affecting them, while at the same time building relations of trust between local administrators.