Don’t make poverty a crime

Last week, three youth, one of them underage, were shot dead by the police in an informal settlement in Kisauni, Mombasa county. Before that, three youth from the Technical University of Mombasa (TUM) were stabbed by a criminal gang in the same area of Kisauni. One of the victims was admitted to ICU but succumbed to his injuries.

After the gang attack, students from TUM took to the streets to protest against insecurity. The police reacted by lobbing tear gas canisters at them and disrupting the constitutional right of the students to protest and complain about rising insecurity.

This is nothing new to Mombasa residents. Such scenarios recur often, with no sign of respite in the offing. This has become the way of life for those in informal settlements in Mombasa, Nairobi, Kisumu and many other towns. Theirs is a dog’s life. To kill or be killed anywhere at any time. Human life in the slums has lost sanctity and no one cares any more.

In the informal settlements, poverty is real and the majority have to survive with no jobs or source of income. It is poverty and lack of resources that lead many to live in these places. Rent is low and food is cheaper. Despite poor public facilities, informal settlements are the only places they can afford. A few who manage to make ends meet, do so by engaging in odd jobs and toiling day and night.

A few resort to illegal practices such as drug peddling, prostitution and theft. Sometimes killings are reported and as a result, most informal settings are considered crime-prone and their residents are mistaken for being part of the criminal network.

Many forget that the majority of slum dwellers are actually law-abiding, hard-working individuals who are trying to eke out a living for themselves and their families. However, since there are some criminal elements among them, they are all tagged criminals. This is the criminalisation of poverty.

Life in the slums is hard. You are treated like a criminal just for living in a slum. From the larger community, to the police and Judiciary. They all have a negative perception of slum dwellers.

The community, particularly the middle class, consider those from informal settlements as desperate individuals who will easily commit crime for a shilling. Most middle-class communities distance themselves from slums and are afraid of those who live there.

The police consider people living in informal settlements potential criminals. Slum-dwellers are thus harassed, tortured and in some cases even killed merely for being from the slums.

The Judiciary considers a slum person brought to court guilty until proven innocent. Many are the instances where accused people plead guilty, despite being innocent, because they know they will be fighting a losing battle to prove their innocence.

This situation has to change.

More than 35 per cent of Kenyans live below the poverty line. This means that according to recent census statistics, more than 16 million Kenyans are poor. Therefore, when we criminalise poverty, we are condemning 16 million Kenyans.

No person chooses to be poor. No person chooses to live in the slums or informal settlements. It is a situation one finds themselves due to reasons not entirely of their own making. Poor governance and unequal distribution of resources have contributed to high levels of poverty. Corruption has poisoned public service and negatively affected development.

It is wrong for society to criminalise the poor and marginalised when they are suffering due to what we as a nation have failed to do. There is urgent need for a change of tack. Society, including the police and Judiciary, must begin to look at persons from informal settlements from a different perspective. Social justice centres that have come up in various informal settlements must midwife this change and fight for the rights of the poor.

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