INCREASING CONFIDENCE DUE TO YOUTH-POLICE INTERACTIONS

Tudor is one of the affluent suburbs of Mombasa, although the area also hosts one of the city’s slums in Moroto, Most of the community live in gated communities of an urban set up. Youth from these communities are highly guarded and seldom interact with the police.  The relationship between the two then remains quite stretched and the level of knowledge on police operations and citizen involvement in policing is, thus, very low

Under the BRICS program, KECOSCE has conducted forums in Tudor area targeting the youth (both from these affluent gated communities and from the slums) with the police to help build these ties. Beatrice Adhiambo has been a beneficiary of these forums. “The first time I attended a youth event in Simitini, Moroto was an eye opener for me. Apart from knowing and appreciating the struggles of fellow youth from this hardship areas, I made good friends from the area. These forums have built my confidence with the police and from time to time, I pass by the police station in Makupa to share information with the OCS.”

Police swoops are carried out periodically in these informal settlements like Simitini in Moroto to fish out hiding criminals. In one of the swoops, three of Beatrice’s friends were arrested and locked at the Makupa police station.

“Upon receiving this news, I took time to visit the police station as usual we had a chat with the officer, I then raised the issue of the three friends who had been arrested, Luckily, they had not been charged in court yet, and owing to the trust the OCS had on me, my three friends were released and warned not to loiter around suspected criminal hideouts. All this I achieved from the confidence I have built from participating in KECOSCE youth-police engagement activities.”

Ever since Beatrice has added her three friends to a Whatsapp group that the youth and police in Makupa had developed for information sharing and have since become active participants of the group.