• Non-state provision

Non-state provision

Internal security is usually seen as pre-eminently a matter for the state and its specialized institutions of legislature, police and judiciary. In the midst of growing crime and distrust of the police, “community policing” has emerged as an alternative to state security. This paper explores the issues of “community policing” in Kenya, outlining the development of the first sungusungu group in 1998, in the context of an influx of small arms, state corruption and the changing face of theft. The paper argues that the creation of the sungusungu groups sought to redefine political loyalties and establish a new moral consensus.

Arguably, the most successful form of community policing in Eastern Africa has been developed independently of the government and in opposition to both the police and the judiciary. This movement is known in both Tanzania and Kenya as sungusungu and in both countries the administration, charged with the overall maintenance of law and order in rural areas, has stepped in to protect local groups in an effort to prevent undue harassment by the police and courts. In such areas, local law has effectively taken over from national law with respect to significant offences, most notably theft.

In particular, this paper explores the development and working of a sungusungu group in Kuria, a remote rural district in Kenya. The paper discusses the following:

• the history of the movement andits origin in Tanzania where it emerged to counter a crime wave fuelled by the increasing availability of small arms
• the development of one Kurian group and how it arose to address the specific problems facing their localities
• a description of the context for the alliance that has developed between this form of sungusungu and the administrative wing of the state

The citizens of Kuria have mobilised indigenous modes of governance and turned these to new ends, thereby creating new forms of political unity and consciousness. Its development also marked a decisive shift in what has become known as the ‘moral economy’ since forms of theft until then tolerated became subject to community discipline and surveillance. The paper concludes that as a result of the sungusungu, the community and its basic moral precepts were redefined.

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