The Influence Of Police Institutional Capacity On Community Policing Implementation In Kasarani Constituency, Nairobi County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

The police service in Kenya is legally entrusted with the mandate of crime prevention. Towards this endeavour, the service is expected to adapt various crime prevention strategies such as community policing. The community policing concept was adopted in Kasarani in 2003. However, this has not wholly met public expectation since crime is still a major challenge to the citizens. This study sought to establish the influence of police institutional capacity on community policing implementation in Kasarani constituency, Nairobi County. A high crime rate can be an impediment to the achievement of Kenya’s aspiration in the social and economic development envisaged in the Vision 2030. This study, therefore, looked at the training of police officers in community policing as critical in imparting skills, values and appropriate attitude in community policing. Resource allocation to community policing were found to be insufficient this made it difficult for the operationalization of community policing. Police organization and administration of the police service was found not to be in line with community policing. The study also looked at community policing policies and found that community policing operations in Kasarani lacks legal rules and procedures. The System Theory was applied in examining the importance of collaboration between the community members and the police in crime prevention. The study took its independent variables as police training, resources allocation, police organization and administration, and community policing strategies. The intervening variables were support from the Government and community behaviour, while the dependent variable was effectiveness of police institutional capacity on community policing implementation. The study adopted a survey research design and targeted both regular and administration police officers in Ruai sub-county, a population of 240. A sample of 120 respondents were served with questionnaires for data collection and interview guide. Quantitative data were analysed with the assistance of SPSS while content analysis was done with qualitative data. The study found out that police officers involved in the maintenance of law and order needed community policing training to give them more awareness on crime prevention through community–police partnership to build their capacity and effectiveness in crime prevention. Provision of additional resources to community policing, police organizational and administration should be aligned to the community policing strategies. New police strategies should be adopted that can address issues of crime prevention effectively through community policing.