Crime prevention is everybody's responsibility
Habitat launches Nairobi Victimisation Survey

Nairobi, 28 November 2001: The United Nations Centre for Human Settlements has launched the findings of the Nairobi Victimisation Survey which was undertaken in collaboration with the Government of Kenya and the Nairobi City Council.

Amongst the main findings of the survey are that over half of Nairobi citizens feel unsafe during the day and three quarters of them confess to feeling insecure at night. According to the survey, four out of every ten people have been victims of robbery and one in every three households in Nairobi is likely to be victim of burglary during the next twelve months. What is worse is that violence is used in four out of every ten burglaries, while a high proportion of victims of personal crimes and theft or burglaries do not report the incidence to the police. Those surveyed feel that the justice systems is unable to apprehend and punish criminals. The general public believes that a culture of impunity seems to have developed in Nairobi. Amongst the main conclusion of the document is that the way forward is to develop a crime prevention strategy based on partnership between the government, city authorities, the provincial government, the police, the private sector and community organisations. Crime prevention is everybody's responsibility.

The survey was carried out as part of Habitat's Safer Cities Programme which is working with the Nairobi City Council. It was conducted by the Intermediate Technology Group and an international consultant who has organised similar surveys in South Africa and Tanzania. Habitat's Safer Cities programme is spearheading a crime prevention approach in developing countries through city projects based within the municipal councils and local authorities. In Africa, the cities of Abidjan, Antananarivo, Dakar, Dar es Salaam, Durban, Johannesburg and Yaounde have ongoing crime prevention projects supported by Habitat. The city of Nairobi is one of the most recent cities to be given technical assistance under the Safer Cities Programme. The initial phase of the programme, which includes the baseline victimisation survey, was made possible with support from the Nairobi office of the United Nations Development Programme.

The findings of the survey were presented to the Nairobi public by Cllr. Dick Waweru Mbugua, His Worship the Mayor of Nairobi, at the opening of a workshop on Strengthening Partnerships for a Safer Nairobi on 27th November 2001. The workshop was hosted by the Nairobi City Council and co-hosted by the Provincial Commissioner's Office, the Intermediate Technology Development Group - East Africa (ITDG-EA) and the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat). Amongst the many stakeholders participating in this event were representatives of the police and the justice system, Dar es Salaam City Commission, consultants from South Africa, the private sector, NGOs, CBOs, neighbourhood associations, women and youth groups.

In his opening speech, the Mayor pointed out the importance of information for the planning and implementation of a crime prevention strategy. Information was urgently required about the perceptions of the people as well as the available resources and capacities. The Mayor called upon the participants to help the City Council design a broad-based crime prevention strategy for the city based on partnership between the various stakeholders in the city. This call for a safer Nairobi was supported by Mr. Paul Andre de la Porte, Resident Representative of UNDP, who pointed out that a secure and safe city were the preconditions for investment and economic development.

In his speech, Mr. Daniel Biau, the Acting Deputy Executive Director of Habitat , emphasised that the rise in crime in cities in Africa was not an automatic result of city development. It was often the result of faulty or inadequate social policies and insufficient management capacities that excluded the needs of the poor. Social exclusion often leads to mariginalised neighbourhoods which are poorly serviced and are often characterised by a culture of lawlessness. Mr. Biau pointed out that this was why Habitat's Safer Cities Programme recommended participatory approaches to an integrated crime prevention strategy.

During the workshop participants heard about the lessons learnt from the Safer Cities programme in Dar es Salaam and South Africa. The conclusion was that Nairobi's crime profile is closer to cities like Johannesburg in South Africa than cities like Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. The workshop also heard the views of many representatives of the criminal justice system and civil society organisations in Nairobi.

In conclusion, the participants called upon the Mayor to move beyond conferences and workshops and to implement city -wide crime prevention strategies. In his concluding speech, Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta, MP, Minister of Local Government, committed his Ministry to playing an active role in establishing strong partnerships so that the citizens of Nairobi could live and work in a safer city.

For further information, please contact:

For further information, please contact:
Mr. Sharad Shankardass, Spokesperson
or Ms. Zahra A. Hassan
Media & Press Relations Unit
UNCHS (Habitat)
Tel: (254 2) 623153
Fax: (254 2) 624060
E-mail: habitat.press@unchs.org
Website: www.unchs.org