Peace Building Challenges in Kenya Implementation of Community Policing as a critical factor

Abstract

The study sought to identify critical factors in affecting peace building initiatives in Kenya particularly focusing on the community policing implementation as a key factor. The justification being that the challenges facing the implementation of community policing in relation to peace building initiatives in Kenya have not been appropriately documented in the existing peace policies. The community policing concept is being used in remote parts of Kenya where the presence of regular police resources for the maintenance of peace is limited due to extremely harsh climatic conditions, harsh terrain and the vastness of the area to be covered with sparse population. Such areas include places like West Pokot where the pastoralist community often faces cattle rustling challenges as well as other security breaches from neighboring communities in Uganda. Cluster sampling and simple random sampling techniques were used to draw a representative sample consisting of 130 residents and 35 police officers. Data was collected using questionnaires and interview guides. Descriptive statistics namely frequency counts and percentages were generated to capture the distribution of responses on the key issues addressed in the study’s questionnaire. The study found that 71.8% of the respondents agreed that community policing helped in peace building compared to 28.2% of the respondents who disagreed. Key Words: Peace Building Challenges in. Kenya.