Eastleigh security pact urges body cameras, CCTV and DCI crime unit
Key points
- GI-TOC published “Shared Security Pact: Recommendations to Improve the Urban Safety of the Somali Community in Eastleigh, Nairobi,” funded by the UK FCDO.
- Proposals include body-worn cameras with IPOA and community oversight, expanded CCTV with a central monitoring unit, and an Eastleigh DCI financial and organised crime unit.
- Other measures: Somali-language policing, Nyumba Kumi tools, digitised licences, migrant screening at the bus terminal and maslaha reforms for serious crime referrals.
- Findings came from five roundtable dialogues between November 2025 and February 2026 with police, residents, civil society and Somali communities.
Eastleigh’s busiest streets sell phones, textiles and remittances by day; by night the same map carries gang violence, drug markets and document fraud. A new multi-stakeholder brief now tries to rewrite how that map is policed — not only with more officers, but with cameras, money trails and clearer lines between traditional mediation and criminal courts, Eastleigh Voice reported.
The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC) published “Shared Security Pact: Recommendations to Improve the Urban Safety of the Somali Community in Eastleigh, Nairobi”, with funding from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Recommendations grew out of five roundtable dialogues held between November 2025 and February 2026, convening police and government officials with residents, civil society organisations and Somali refugee and migrant communities.
Cameras, cash trails and maslaha boundaries
The pact flags gang-related violence, illicit drug markets, human trafficking (including for sexual exploitation), smuggling and predicate crimes such as document forgery, plus strained police–community relations rooted in profiling, corruption and mistrust. Climate displacement into Nairobi is treated as a risk multiplier. On prevention it proposes training officers on Somali culture, refugee rights and trauma-informed policing, and recruiting and promoting more Somali-speaking officers. Accountability tools include police body-worn cameras overseen by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) and community representatives; expanded CCTV with a central monitoring unit; and creation of an Eastleigh financial and organised crime unit within the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) for “follow-the-money” work.
Further ideas equip Nyumba Kumi coordinators with smartphones, secure reporting systems, allowances and recognition incentives, plus a 24/7 confidential hotline in Somali and Swahili. Ward-level liaison committees, longer-staying liaison officers, digitised county licences and biometric audit of issuing points are meant to shrink petty corruption. On justice, the brief would let maslaha councils keep civil disputes and minor offences while requiring referral of trafficking, sexual exploitation, drug trafficking and violent crime to formal courts, with elder training and documented referral records. Migrant measures include a screening centre at the Eastleigh bus terminal, rent support for climate-displaced families, mobile legal clinics and urban resilience hubs offering digital literacy, language classes, psychosocial support and childcare. Crime desk: Crime. Verified dialogue window, funder, proposal list and problem diagnosis from Eastleigh Voice/GI-TOC; the pact is advisory — budget lines, NPS circulars and county bylaws would still need to follow.
For traders and tenants, the test is whether body-cam footage and DCI financial files change street outcomes faster than another roundtable report. Without funded CCTV ops centres and real IPOA review capacity, the pact risks staying a PDF on a donor shelf.
Based on Eastleigh Voice reporting of the GI-TOC Shared Security Pact for Eastleigh. Official agency adoption and funding decisions control which recommendations are implemented.
