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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 10, No. 12

Publication Date: December 25, 2023

DOI:10.14738/assrj.1012.15064.

Mwanza, M. M. (2023). Challenges of Crime in City Slums: A Case Study of Mathare Slum in Nairobi County, Kenya. Advances in

Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(12). 233-244.

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

Challenges of Crime in City Slums: A Case Study of Mathare Slum

in Nairobi County, Kenya

Martin Mwaka Mwanza

ABSTRACT

This study focuses on the challenges of crime within Mathare slum in Nairobi

County, Kenya. It has been necessitated by the continued concern on the constant

presence of crime within the slum areas of Nairobi. Although there have been

studies carried out on various challenges in slums, this study provides a detailed

analysis of the security challenges faced by Mathare slum dwellers. The study

sought to examine five major thematic areas; major causes of crime in Mathare

slum, types and trends of crime within Mathare slum, crime reporting, criminal

gangs in Mathare slum and fear of crime within Mathare slum. Questionnaires and

key informant interviews were used to obtain data from respondents who included

Mathare slum residents, police officers, area chiefs and community policing

committees’ chairpersons from the thirteen villages in Mathare slum. The

challenges of crime in Mathare slum were found to be a combination of multiple

factors working in congruence to influence the commission of crime.

Keyword: Challenges of crime

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Rural to urban migration is a common feature in most cities of Africa. There has been a rapid

urban growth in Kenya, especially in Nairobi. Between 2000 and 2005, Kenya’s urban growth

was 4.4 percent, compared to the regional average of 3.5 percent (UN-Habitat 2010). This has

caused faster growth of the urban population and in turn caused extreme physical, social, and

economic ramifications. Mathare slum is estimated to have a population of more than 200,000

people. Rapid growth of the urban population leads to overcrowding, slimmer employment

opportunities, distinctive communities and social networks and facilitates the emergence of

crime and violence. Slums are mainly a result of urbanization and its intensity and complexity.

Slums are characterized by poverty, insecure shelters, unemployment, social exclusion,

inadequate sanitation and water and insecurity (Berger 2006).

According to Ndikaru (2011) informal settlements in urban areas are particularly vulnerable

to crime and violence. He further intimates that due to slums unplanned physical nature,

inhabitants have scarce protection from official state security agencies and, because of high

poverty levels, they have little resilience to loss or injury and finally the lack of institutions and

service delivery, leaves the residents with little option of dealing with issues through the due

process. Beal and Fox (2007) argued that a mix of poverty and urbanization may encourage the

youth to engage in criminal activities to enable them protect their neighbourhoods due to

absence of steady sources of income and absence of effective social support mechanisms.

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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 10, Issue 12, December-2023

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

According to UN-Habitat (2009), impoverished villages and communities in the urban centres,

lead to gang violence, low education levels, and incredibly high crime rates. Further, Stravou

(2002) argued that the existing forces found in destitute and dehumanizing living standards of

the poor in the slums could drive majority of these individuals into criminal activities which

result to an increase in crime rates. Crime is said to emerge where inequality and exclusion is

highly practiced and out of limited official and social control. Therefore, crime and violence in

many ways results from poverty (Kessides, 2005).

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Researchers have raised concerns over the pain that slum dwellers undergo under criminals as

well as police. The relationship between Mathare slum dwellers and the police is characterized

by mistrust. Many slum-dwellers view the police as generally slow, inept, corrupt and unlikely

to patrol the slums or even successfully investigate crime for prosecution purposes. Slum

dwellers have low levels of confidence with the police since they feel that they often cannot

provide adequate security. They hate and despise police officers. As a result, they are unwilling

to cooperate with the police and share information. On the other hand, police officers react with

force and treat them imprudently. Criminals instead take advantage of the situation to terrorize

members of the public and specifically target those people who they see as to be working

closely with the police.

Painted graphics and writings on worn out buildings are viewed as a desperate way to vent out

by the slum dwellers, mostly victims of violence from criminals. Inhabitants of the slum are

therefore left vulnerable and defenceless in the face of violence and crime. The physical

deterioration of slums has a spiralling effect on social control within these areas, and provides

a fertile environment for crime and other deviant behaviours, and also for the rise of gangs.

Gangs who pose as vigilante groups are known for muggings, extortion and violence. Police

have been accused of extrajudicial killings and high handedness when responding to criminals

and gangs earning both praises and criticism in equal measure from the slum dwellers. The

study therefore sought to examine the challenges of crime in urban slums of Kenya, specifically

Mathare slum.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Slums otherwise referred to as inner city neighbourhoods or informal settlements are defined

as areas typically characterized by absence or deprivation of basic urban services, amenities,

or needs such as adequate shelter, infrastructure investment, economic deprivation,

uncontrolled human movement, squalor and poor sanitation as well as lack of security of tenure

for residential land and dwellings (SRIC, 2014). According to SRIC (2014) approximately 3.9

million people live in slum and informal urban settlements in Kenya, constituting 55% of the

urban population. Mathare slums in Nairobi is arguably the second biggest slum after Kibera

slums in Kenya.

According to Unowa (2007) unplanned expansion of urban cities disables the capacity of

governments and local authorities to provide security and supply basic social infrastructure

such as water, education, health and sewage disposal facilities. He adds that this leads to

mushrooming of slums which overcome and swallow the already crumbling infrastructures of

the urban nucleus, further compounding the challenges of security and crime. This not only

overstretches the basic infrastructure and services but also policing services of the state