The Nyumba Kumi concept

  

Date Posted: 10/17/2013 2:31:26 AM

Posted By: Moff J  Membership Level: Silver  Total Points: 485

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The weekend of September 21, 2013 will forever remain in the minds of many Kenyans. It will go down as one of the worst terrorist attacks the country has ever experienced where over 60 people lost their lives and over 100 others injured. To add to that, billions of shillings were lost and business people who drew their daily living from Westgate Shopping Mall were forced to look elsewhere for their daily living.

The attack poked serious questions with regard to the security measures in the country. In as much as our security forces did the best they could (kudos to all of them by the way), we as a country and our able government need to go back to the drawing board and re-evaluate the security measures and whether something can be done to at least prevent such an attack from taking place or even mitigate the effects of the attack.

With that in mind, the cabinet secretary in charge of internal security Mr Ole Lenku proposed the implementation of ‘Nyumba Kumi’ initiative across the country.
The concept behind this security measure is simple and it basically calls for us to be ‘our brother’s keeper’. It is already being used in some parts of Kenya like Likoni and even in our neighboring country Tanzania. It entails the forming of some kind of a security association where 10 households come together and decide to collaborate on matters to do with security. Each member of a particular household is known to all the other households and they watch out for each other like a ‘big family’. In this way, people are able to know who they are living around with and in the event of one being suspected of engaging in criminal and/or other illegal activities, they are reported to the security authorities for

appropriate action.

In Likoni, the concept is such that there is a head to the ‘Nyumba Kumi’ to whom the members can report any security issues. The head then takes steps to report the matter to security officers. The residents of that area say that the concept is practical and workable. It has seen crime prevalence fall by as much as 60% in the area.

However, some critics may say that the concept may not be well received by many Kenyans owing to the fact that Kenyans like keeping their things private. Another challenge is with respect to the Kenyan constitution. The government has to convince all Kenyans to embrace the initiative willingly without any coercion. This is because the Constitution of Kenya, Article 36(2) states that a person shall not be compelled to join an association of any kind.

Thus, in as much as the Nyumba Kumi concept is a noble task, appropriate groundwork needs to be laid down for it to be agreeable to all Kenyans. Massive awareness has to be carried out to show the citizens that it is a good concept and it is for their own security. Otherwise it will remain just another good concept that was never actualized.

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