Thesis:

The role of community policing in illict brews prevetion in Gatundu south sub-county, Kenya

The strategic role of community policing in crime prevention and particularly in illicit brews prevention cannot be underestimated. The purpose of the study was to establish the role of community policing in illicit brews prevention in Gatundu south sub-county, Kenya. The study was guided by three specific objectives; firstly to analyze the challenges faced by community policing in prevention of illicit brews, secondly to determine the perception of the community towards community policing as an illicit brews prevention strategy and finally to establish the contribution of community-police relationship to illicit brews prevention in Gatundu south sub- county. Theories adopted in this study were social structure theory of community policing and the broken window theory. This research adopted a mixed methodology to accommodate collection of both qualitative and quantitative data. The researcher adopted descriptive research design since it allowed collection and descriptively analyzing the collected data from the study population. The target population of the study was 28,047 households and 19 experts. The study used Yamane (1967) formula to get the sample population and from the formula, the sample size of household respondents was 437 households. Pilot study was conducted in Juja sub- county which facilitated in measuring the consistency and soundness of the study tools before the actual study. Interview method was used for the experts while questionnaires were used for household respondents. The study used cluster sampling technique for household respondents and purposive sampling technique for the experts. Descriptive tables were used to provide the predictable summary figures on the values to be studied. Following data collection, the quantitative coded data was analyzed using SPSS and Microsoft excel and interpreted using descriptive statistics methods while qualitative data was analyzed thematically. The study found out that there were challenges facing community policing whereby lack of adequate skills by police officers was the leading challenge at 62%. On examination of the perception of the community towards community policing strategy in illicit brews prevention, majority of respondents expressed to have a negative perception towards the strategy by 51.15% where majority of the household respondents believed that community policing is a waste of time. Finally on the examination of the contribution of the community-police relationship to community policing, majority of respondents expressed to support that the relationship contributed in illicit brews prevention. It was established that community-police social environment is the most important factor when it comes to illicit brews prevention at 88%. The study further established from the qualitative data that there were challenges facing community policing in relation to resources, lack of adequate skills by police officers and the current police transfer policy. Grounded on these findings, the study concluded that there are challenges facing community policing and the community had a negative perception towards using community policing strategy in illicit brews prevention. The study recommends the national government and NGOs to make resources available for a smooth running of community policing programs and continue with sensitization of the community members on the importance of community policing in illicit brews prevention