• Kepssi chairman Ibrahim Ng’ang’a said time has come for parents and leaders in Mombasa county to take a different approach in dealing with juvenile crime.
• He said for a strong family unit to be in place, there needs peace and understanding among the heads of the families.
Image: BRIAN OTIENO
The increase in juvenile crime in Mombasa has been linked to the numerous divorce cases across the coastal city.
A forum organised by the Kenya Peace and Security Support Initiative at the Mombasa county commissioner’s office on Thursday heard that many of the delinquent youth come from single parent families or those that have gone through divorce.
Kepssi chairman Ibrahim Ng’ang’a said time has come for parents and leaders in Mombasa county to take a different approach in dealing with juvenile crime.
He said for a strong family unit to be in place, there needs peace and understanding among the heads of the families.
“That is why we have called all peace committee chairpersons, all community policing members, all deputy county commissioners and youth from Mombasa county.
“We have to come up with a roadmap on how to deal with this rising crime in Mombasa,” Ng’ang’a said.
Shamsa Abubakar, a peace mediator and community mobiliser whose main duty is to reform delinquent youth, said many of the youth she has dealt with come from single parent families.
“They reveal bitterness and lack of firm foundation growing up. They come from problematic family setting,” Shamsa said.
County commissioner Hassan Noor called for collaboration among parents, security agencies, religious leaders and other stakeholders to help bring peace in Mombasa.
Noor said some societal problems need societal approach to deal with.
“These are our children and our people. We know them and we live with them. Some only need to be talked to, to change their ways,” he said.
Kenya Ports Authority head of security Tony Kibwana said as a corporate citizen, the authority has to support peace initiatives to ensure peace prevails in Mombasa.
“Without peace, we cannot have as much business as we have when there is peace. With business, we are able to employ more youth, thereby reducing crime," he said.
“Our managing director Captain William Ruto is very keen on matters of security in Mombasa and that is why he supports these initiatives.”
Mombasa deputy county commissioner Ronald Muiwawi said some of the juvenile youth are bitter because their upbringing is not as normal as other children’s.
He said many of them lack parental guidance, especially the father figure in their lives.
“They see their parents fighting in front of them. This sticks in their minds and they let it out on other people on the streets,” Muiwawi said.
He said such youth lack mentorship.
Shamsa said Mombasa is becoming a divorce county because of the rampant divorce cases witnessed.
“Nowadays, youth court on WhatsApp, marry on Facebook and divorce on X. They divorce at the whim of their consciousness,” she said.
She said 20-year-olds marry and then divorce their wives at 22.
“It is because they do not have guidance on marriage,” Shamsa said.
“There are more than 5,000 pending divorce cases at the Kadhi’s Court as we speak.”
However, Chief Kadhi Abdulhalim Hussein said although the number of divorce cases in Mombasa is not pleasing, the number is not as high as Mama Shamsa put it.
“The divorce rate is at 20 per cent. This means of all the marriages in a year, 20 per cent end up in divorce. Although it is not good, even if it was one per cent, the cases are not 5,000. We do not register 5,000 cases in a year,” Hussein said.
He said, however, divorce cases contribute a lot to youth delinquency.
Mombasa Council of Elders chairman Bishop Joseph Maisha said time has come for parents to talk to their children and give them mentorship.