Why petty crime is rife in Nyayo Estate Embakasi

 

A section of Nyayo Estate. Some residents are complaining that their cars are vandalized in the parking areas. [Jeniffer Wachie, Standard]

NAIROBI: Residents of Nyayo Estate in Embakasi are up in arms over increased cases of car vandalism and petty crime. Posting on the residents’ official Facebook page, many residents lamented that their cars had been vandalised in the past one month.

Speaking to Metropolitan, Robert Alai, the chairperson of the Nyayo Estate Residents Association (NERA), said the guards should be blamed for the recent insecurity issues. Alai claims the guards were lax and not keen on keeping the estate secure.

“We blame our recent woes on the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) for changing security guards. We had a firm that was executing its duties well, until NSSF contracted another one, then the issues started,” Alai lamented.

Alai alleged that the guards were becoming lax because they are underpaid. He termed ironical claims that NSSF, a government entity, had contracted a security company that was underpaying its guards, even after the President cracked a whip on such firms.

Meanwhile, residents of a section of Tassia/Fedha estates are worried over rising insecurity. This comes after a man was shot dead on Standard Drive last week, in a series of other killings in the area, in the past two months.

Sharon Nduku, a resident of Tassia’s Solidarity Street, said, “Hapa tunaishi na uoga mingi sana.” (We are in constant fear here).

She continued, “Something needs to be done!”

Another resident, Humphrey Chapa says after the latest incident, residents of both Solidarity Street and Standard Drive met to chart the way forward. Metropolitan has established that security guards have been hired to man the two gates leading into the two residential sections.

“The gates now remain closed at all times, unlike before,” Humphrey states.