Risky business: Long commutes home attract crime in cities like Karachi and Nairobi

People living in slums on the outskirts are especially disadvantaged and the solution is mass transit.


Mahim Maher January 15, 2013
PHOTO: EPA/FILE

KARACHI: Crime is a problem in Nairobi in the form of say muggings and carjackings, not necessarily house break-ins, says Patrick Adolwa, who was previously the director of City Planning in the City Council of Nairobi.

In particular, he points out the people who live on the peri-urban fringe of Nairobi as vulnerable because of the three to four hours it takes to get home due to a lack of proper mass transit. It is quite similar in Karachi where long commutes increase the risk of being mugged.

Nairobi tried to advocate for a metropolitan police but the national government refused. “Our argument was, and I was a proponent, that the urban is a unique system and you need people who understand its dynamics,” says Adolwa. “Policing rural areas is different from urban policing.” Similarly, Karachi’s ex-mayor Mustafa Kamal also argued for control of the police but the Sindh government refused.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16th, 2013.

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