The role of urban refugees in organised crime: A case of starehe Sub County in Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

According to the Kenya Police Crime Statistics (2018) a number of urban refugees in Kenya have joined criminal networks that are involved in petty crimes, smuggling of people, robbery, smuggling of commercial goods, illegal arms trade and terrorism which has led to the government intention of closing up the refugee camps in Kenya. This study therefore sought to fill the gap by investigating the role of urban refugees in organised crime in Nairobi. This study was guided by the following specific objectives; to establish the nature of organized crimes urban refugees are engaged in, to investigate the social economic factors that motivate urban refugees to be engaged in organized crime and to assess the adequacy existing legal and policy provision in managing organized crime. This study was anchored on the securitization theory and underpinned on the constructivism theory. A descriptive survey design was adopted in this study. The research site was Starehe Constituency which consists of 6 wards. The population of this study included 235 police officers, 2 officers from Office of Director of Public Prosecution, 520 refugees and 2 National Government Administration officers. In total a sample size of 138 respondents were considered in this study. Further, the study carried an in-depth interview on 6 key informants. A self-administering questionnaire and key informant interviews were used to collect primary data. Data was cleaned and entered into an SPSS (Version 25) package for analysis. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics and presented using frequencies, percentages and measures of central tendencies. Qualitative data was analysed using content analysis, organizing data into thematic contents and presented in narratives. The study found out that refugees living in Kenya were involved in criminal activities, such as human trafficking (89%), sale of small arms (78%) technological related crimes (60%) among others. Refuges in urban places faced inadequate supply of food, insecurity, sanitation problems, congestion, diseases, lack of incomes, shelter problems, scarcity of water, and restricted movement while doing business. In order to end refugee involvement in criminal activities, the Kenyan government should be providing refugees with access to tenure security, legal documentation and low-interest loans, which can help the informal migrants to get formal jobs and stability. Kenyan government should ensure that all refugees entering Kenya are dully registered and their movements are closely monitored. Kenya together with UNHCR should Institute measures that strengthen the entire criminal justice process and to vigorously investigate and prosecute crimes against refugee, including trafficking in per-sons and other serious offences,