Eastern Zone DCSA

stations, outposts, police officers and poor community-police
relations were some of the most notable challenges facing the
police according to the zone Police Commissioner 25 .
Police preference slightly increased when reporting serious crimes;
the police were mentioned by the second largest proportion of
respondents (25%) though the quota of respondents naming
traditional elders as the preferred security provider remained high
(41%) (Fig 21).
business group discussion participants claimed that police feared for
their lives and were reluctant to face criminals 27 : “I witnessed an
incident where perpetrators murdered someone and bystanders
[including an armed police officer] ran for their lives” recalled one
participant.
Figure 22: Most trusted security provider in responding to crime
(by gender)
Survey findings had shown that crimes were not reported to
religious leaders (Fig 19, 20, 21), and qualitative findings revealed
that, although religious leaders were highly respected, their role in
conflict resolution was not prominent. Moreover, the districts did
not have registered Shari’ah offices 26 .
3.2.3. Perception towards Security Providers
The traditional elders were also clear favourites when the
respondents were asked which of the security providers (formal and
informal) they trusted the most to respond to crimes. More than a
third (40%) of the sampled population named traditional elders (Fig
22).
Police insufficiency and poor working conditions are deemed to
affect their performance (hence influencing respondents’
perception), there were reports that police officers in the district
stations did not respond to crime and violence after 9:00 P.M –
25 Zone Police Commissioner, Key Informant Interview, Eastern Zone, 23
March 2014
26 Religious leader, Key Informant Interview, Eastern Zone, 23 March 2014
The most common reasons offered by those who trusted traditional
elders most were that they were respected (46%) and easy to
access (30%) (Fig 23). When the respondents’ low trust in police was
investigated further, the Eastern Zone Police Commissioner stated
27 Business Group, Focus Group Discussion, Eastern Zone, 3 March 2014
17