Community Policing: An approach for Countering Youth Radicalization in Eastleigh Area of Nairobi County
Abstract
Community policing approaches have been used successfully to prevent crime, reduce the fear of crime, and improve public safety. A raging debate, however, is emerging as to whether this approach can be used with equal effectiveness in the prevention of terrorism. Over the last sixteen years, Kenya has tried several approaches to “the war against terrorism.” However, none of the approaches has succeeded in stamping out terrorism. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to find out ways in which the philosophy of community policing could be modelled to fit a citizen based-counter terrorism strategy. The study established that community policing principles can be used to create sustainable partnerships between law enforcement agencies and residents, thus facilitating the identification of root causes of youth radicalization. Training of police officers on community policing principles and trends in youth radicalization was strongly recommended. Further, police officers should invest more in trust-building initiatives in establishing a joint early warning system with the local communities they serve. The study further recommends an intensive public awareness campaign on the nature, indicators, and symptoms of youth radicalization within Eastleigh and the country at large.
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Copyright (c) 2020 Mike Kiplagat Chepkong’a, PhD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
