Community Policing Role in Prevention of Terrorist Attacks in Daadab, Garissa County, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to establish community policing role in prevention of terrorist attacks in Daadab, Garissa County, Kenya. Kenya has witnessed increased operations of terrorist in 21st Century with 2015 Garissa University attack being the most notable one. As a result of terrorism and the outcome emanating from terrorism and counterterrorist actions, the connections (socially) within Garissa and other Counties are similarly impacted. This is especially true in light of the fact that certain initiatives including collaboration among community and the police had resulted in a longer lasting consequences coming from social disconnect, which calls for the need of social interventions. The study adopted descriptive design and the study targeted six wards in Daadab, with each contributing twenty respondents thereby giving a total of 964 respondents and 12 key informants. The sample size was 275 respondents selected by using simple random sampling technique. Questionnaires were used to collect primary data. The quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation aided by SPSS version 26. The quantitative data was presented by use of tables for clarity purposes. While qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis and then presented in narrative format. The findings drawn from the study revealed that there was positive and significant association between police and community partnership and prevention of terrorist attacks (β) 0.007, t=0.158, p value <0.05). The analysis implied that a unit change in police-community partnership improved prevention of terrorist attacks by 0.007 units when holding other factors constant. The findings also revealed that there was a positive and significant relationship between shared problem solving and prevention of terrorist attacks, (β) 0.717, t=22.941, p value >0.05). The analysis implied that a unit change in shared problem-solving affected prevention of terrorist attacks by 0.717 units when holding other factors constant. The study recommends that in shared problem solving, since the community policing is increasingly being utilized in the fight against terrorist activity, the national security organ should focus more effort and resources to have the shared problem-solving approaches fully realized. The government should identify appropriate channel through which the community can be empowered through a selected number of personnel in every village who will have an eye for profiled and suspected terrorist among other ordinary citizens.