“Nature of Human Security in Nairobi, Kenya”

Apply

“Nature of Human Security in Nairobi, Kenya”

Journal Title: IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science - Year 2018, Vol 23, Issue 3

Abstract

This paper assesses the nature of human security in Kenya. A human security perspective focuses on causes and effects that pose for human beings a survival dilemma: stay/die, migrate, and/or protest/fight. The paper interrogates the security gaps in Kenya that emanate from state retreat and fragility leading to human insecurity. This paper is derived from a study done on the „International refugee protection framework‟s influence on human security in Kenya.‟The paper considers whether the state should advance/ enhance a security – first framework for both its citizens and refugees or consider whether modern refugee international framework offers refugees adequate protection. In this scenario, the paper examines options at hand of the state responsibility to protect visa –a-vis the new challenge posed by refugee radicalization of the nation, terrorist attacks, safety and security of its citizenry.The researcher strives to identify the interplay and causal relationship between flawed prohibitions, negligent authorities and insecurity arising from state retreat and fragility. This paper reveals that the link between terrorism and illegal refugee migration are not the only examples of the illegal migration-security correlation. Human smuggling and human trafficking are also correlated with corruption, poor state capacity, social cleavages, radicalization of youth into violent extremism, drug and weapon proliferation. The claim is based on the notion that authorities are directly responsible for implementing punishment. In cases where prohibitions are flawed, authorities at times play a critical role in the conditions leading to impunity hence insecurity for Kenyan citizens. In situations where prohibitions are well-articulated and there exists systematic tools for justice, some state officers and humanitarians still find ways to violate laws through the exercise of their own power and authority. Some state officers protect their allies or clients or shield their own culpability. Exercising undue influence, protection officers can send signals that refugee hosting is not costly. The residents of Nairobi and the state need to collaborate most to discredit the notion that Kenya is determined to undermine the humanitarian objective of the 1951 Convention on grounds of security. The results establish that irregular migration of refugee situation in Kenya has little or reasonable influence on security; and becomes a threat only if heightened by the presence of Organised Criminal Groups both local and transnational. And these groups thrive in socially disorganized settlements. The main factor pushing refugees to Nairobi is socio-economic. Most citizens are afraid or not concerned to report on strangers in their environments. To enhance protection of both citizens and refugees, the government should elevate the ordinary people living in the midst of political violence who naturally want security. Hence forth the above paper showed that human security requirements of refugees as people in need of protection were not mistaken, but lacking. It did not speak to emerging security challenges of violence instigated by refugees in the host state.A consensus must be reached on how the terrorist nature of insecurity could be handled vis-à-vis meeting the humanitarian objectives. Social and structural gaps arising from state retreat and fragility are strategic to answering to human insecurity in Kenya. Internal security policy must seek to increase the capacity of citizen response, recovery and adaptability while reducing the current sense of powerlessness through increased knowledge acquisition.

Authors and Affiliations

Leah Barasa, Frank Matanga

Keywords

human security poor state capacity corruption social cleavages international refugee protection framework

EP ID EP418182
DOI 10.9790/0837-2303048795.
Views 76
Downloads 0