October 11th 2013, By JOE KIARIE
NAIROBI, KENYA: Until early this week, majority
of Kenyans were largely unfamiliar with the ‘Nyumba Kumi ‘security
model. But not residents of Makongeni Location in Makadara, Nairobi
County.
Courtesy of a brilliant chief, the model has been successfully
enforced for the past four years, helping not just tackle insecurity,
but also fuel development. So impressive were the results that the
concept was later adopted at the divisional and district levels.
Alexander Hoops, who conceived the programme shortly after he was
posted as Makongeni chief in 2008, says he was oblivious of the
Tanzanian Ujamaa socialist system and his thinking was purely influenced
by the problems at hand.
“The crime rate in Makongeni was so high and anyone who reported
criminals to the authorities would be attacked. Chang’aa was being
brewed all over and consumed like water, while poverty level was very
high,” says Hoops. “It was impossible for me to tackle this predicament
with the help of just a few Administration Police officers and so I
realised that I would only succeed if I empowered the locals to deal
with problems in their own localities.”
The formula
It is then that the chief introduced the ‘Ten-Ten House to
House’ formula, a comprehensive community policing strategy that would
see every 10 households transformed into an administrative unit,
complete with an elected elder. The programme was not limited to
security.
The units would also prove useful when it came to strategic
monitoring and coordination of reports on education, infrastructure
development, health, births and deaths, family units’ progression and
immoral behavior, among other social aspects of life. It would also help
in eliminating the sale of illicit brews and safeguarding the
environment.
All this was put together as part of the 2009/2010 Makongeni
Location Work Plan that clearly outlined the mission, strategy,
implementation time frame, budget, performance indicators and the
implementing agents. Under the programme, members of Nyumba Kumi unit
shared contacts and information on each other’s house number, and met
regularly to discuss their social welfare.
The unit’s elder, who was to be available round the clock, would
keep a file on all this information and act as the liaison with the
provincial administrators reporting to them once every week. The
clusters were also empowered to arbitrate on various conflicts in the
neighbourhood, with the elders overseeing the adjudication process. It
did not end there.
To win the war against chang’aa brewers, Hoops came up with the
‘Mulika Chang’aa Okoa Mtoto’ (Whistle Blow on Chang’aa, Save the Child)
initiative, which targeted not just eliminating illicit brewing but also
rehabilitating the brewers. On the environment front, various groups
comprising of local youths were registered to actively engage in
commercial garbage collection through a campaign dubbed ‘Weka Taka Okoa
Nairobi River Basin’ (Keep the Garbage, Save the Nairobi River Basin).
The entire community also joined hands in tree planting and regular
clean-up campaigns.
Estate concept
Within several months, the estate concept had borne fruits and the
chief became the unlikely centre of attention in the sleepy city suburb.
“The ability to identify crimes significantly went up and criminals
were increasingly arrested while others ran away or quit their wayward
ways,” says Hoops. “The number of those reporting crimes also increased
and the highly prevalent reprisal attacks dropped.”
Hoops, who quit his post to join politics last year, says the
model boosted interaction, cooperation and communication between the
Government and the public, making his work easy. With a closely-knit
monitoring system, illicit brewers had nowhere to hide and most of them
voluntarily quit the occupation under a programme that would see them
come up with proposals on alternative businesses that would be rolled
out by sponsors.
End of first year
By the end of the first year, 43 brewers, predominantly women,
had quit the trade, surrendered information to the authorities and
offered themselves for constructive businesses. A document on the
converted brewers shows that some used to sell as much as 50 litres of
chang’aa daily, not to mention other drugs.
Majority have since been helped by the community to start up
alternative businesses, among them operating beauty shops and groceries.
Amid impressive results, the idea was in 2010/2011 adopted at the
divisional and district level where it is still in force. Margaret
Mbugua, the Makadara Divisional Officer, says the programme has recorded
phenomenal success. “With the members of each unit relating closely,
their leader reporting to us weekly, the crime rate has gone down. We
know all the criminals and they rarely stay here for long,” she states.
“Mugging is the main challenge at the moment because it is
basically snatch-and-run but we still arrest any suspects who are
identified.”
Ms Mbugua expresses her delight after conquering illicit brewers.
“We used to arrest them, but they would be released by the courts. We
offered them alternatives, partnered with financial institutions and
local leaders for funding, and they are now in their businesses,” she
states, saying only a few brewers remain in the district today, with
areas such as Jericho not having a single brewer.
Mbugua says the programme capitalised on the trust residents had
in the provincial administration. “We always listened to them and even
availed suggestion boxes for those who wanted to remain anonymous,” she
reveals, saying she worked very closely with the Makadara District
Commissioner (DC), Mr Suleiman Chege, for success.
The trio’s work
Unsurprisingly, the trio’s work caught the eye of the Office of
the President, which recognised their input to community policing during
the Third Wave Rapid Results Initiative (RRI) rankings in 2010. Hoops
was ranked the best performing chief in Nairobi Province, Ms Mbugua was
ranked the best DO while Mr Chege was ranked as the best DC.
Last Monday, Cabinet Secretary for Interior and Coordination of
National Government Joseph ole Lenku called for the introduction of the
policy countrywide as a way to effectively handle crime cases. Hoops
advises against the marketing of the concept as Tanzanian, as it has
been independently tested in Kenya, with positive results.
“Let it be presented as a Kenyan idea. If you market it as a
Tanzanian concept, it might face some resistance since people will view
it as a foreign idea and thus not directly identify with it,” he
cautions. But he says it will be the best way possible to boost general
development. “When an initiative is people-driven, the gap between them
and the government narrows,” he states
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