SPECIAL FEATURE: This is why it's not safe to walk alone at night around Juja

The student was declared dead upon arrival, to the hospital he was rushed to, due to excessive bleeding. The public suspect that the attack was the work of thugs who were trying to steal from Sidney. The area DCIO in a telephone interview stated that one of the suspects in the Tim Sidney’s stabbing incident is in police custody while they are pursuing his accomplice.

This past weekend Hashtag interrogated the menace further. A private company contracted to help guard the institution has its officers on duty at the institution’s entry points.

A section of students who spoke to Hashtag raised concerns of improper street lighting across the busy small town, the lack of adequate police patrols at night and in the morning hours and the presence of thieves within the town, which has significantly contributed to the high rates of insecurity. Police officers in Juja, however, feel enough has been done to secure the town, guaranteeing the student’s security within the University and its environs. Juja OCPD Patrick Manyasi holds that the town does not have an organised ring of criminals that are targeting students. Mr Manyasi says the police have ensured the area is secure, dismissing rumours of boda-boda riders ferrying students to thugs in wait and later sharing the loot.

“There are no gangs or crime hot-spots in Juja or around the University. What students need to realise is that it is not safe to walk alone late at night, not just in Juja but everywhere else. We always advise them to be in groups even though we have police officers on the watch during the day and at night,” says Mr. Manyasi.

Interestingly, however, was the accusation that the institution’s alumni living in the town were aiding and propagating crime against them.

Juja town has affordable housing and a number of JKUAT students after graduating retain their hostels while seeking to be engaged in active employment since the area is only Sh50 away from Nairobi’s CBD.

“A number of these former students can be seen loitering the town. Most claim to be doing business in the town but this cannot be corroborated. It is not uncommon to spot them loafing at the ‘containers’ next to the university’s main gate drinking or wandering on campus grounds. We suspect that they break into our rooms or aid thieves commit crime,” lamented a student leader who did not what to be named for fear of reprisals.

Concerns over the possible involvement of former students in theft cases have been raised during past meetings with the institution’s administration and the security bosses but the area security chief Mr Manyasi denied having specific individual students or former students nabbed in connection to robberies or student attacks.

The University’s chief security officer Mr Francis Njeru says there were only a few insecurity incidences reported and mostly emerge from privately owned hostels outside the university. He says his office has no jurisdiction on the security of areas where students individually seek accommodation.

Insecurity Mapping

While mapping the area to scout for the most notorious robbing spots, Hashtag identified the Coca Cola depot, 500 metres from the main gate, the road stretching from the main gate, through Unaitas towards the Crossroad apartments, Gate C and Gate B as the areas with most reported cases of harassment, robbery with violence, or death under unclear circumstances.

The bushy fence around the closed gate facing the Gachororo area has broken sections of the perimeter barbed wire and mesh. While students are to blame for trespassing to gain access to learning facilities, unhappy about the closure of a gate, attacks have been linked to outsiders who take advantage of the loophole.