March 27, 2018

‘Ten houses’: Africa’s silver bullet for mutating urban violence

located:	Kenya
editor:	Bob Koigi

Six out of every ten women living in urban areas in Africa have, at one time, faced a form of violence, with two-thirds of families having had to contend with some aspects of disturbance that has disrupted their way of life, new studies indicate. According to the reports, the emerging and prevalent distresses include rape, domestic violence, child abuse and street crime. This stems from a growing population of angry, desperate and frustrated urban population looking for avenues to vent.

In a shocking pattern of child abuse for example, ranging from sexual violence to kidnapping, it appears that trusted family friends have been behind a growing number of child abductions that come with hefty ransom demands. And such social ills are poised to spike, as more people continue to migrate to urban areas in search of better days.

A third of the African population has been urbanised, the largest number the world over. 70 percent of those who live in urban areas live in informal settlements after having failed to secure gainful employment or a dignified source of income in the cities. Every year, thousands of graduates leave school with the hope of acquiring a stable and promising future, only to be faced with a harsh reality. The world shows them otherwise. Such cocktails of hiccups, psychologists say, are enough to disrupt the social fabric.

The urban violence recorded is currently mutating to more radical crimes, including terrorism and high profiled robberies – with the young people at the heart of this melee.

The onus isn’t just on governments and policy makers to bring back sanity to our societies, but a collective responsibility that fosters cohesion, unity and the realisation that injustice to one is injustice to all.

The transformative ‘nyumba kumi’ concept in East Africa, that embraces the ten houses ideology in making neighbours their brothers' keepers, offers tangible and practical lessons on taming mutating crime. It has successfully foiled terror attacks and assisted law enforcers nab notorious criminals. Perhaps we should replicate nyumba kumi across all aspects of our city lives to forestall anarchy and reweave the social fabric.

Photo: Digital citizen