Desistance

An obvious and eminent goal of a reintegration program is to encourage the offender to desist from crime, and to stop reoffending. “Desistance” refers to the process by which, with or without the intervention of criminal justice agencies, offenders terminate their offending activities and maintain crime-free lives. It is usually achieved after some time. Busia Beyond Crime in collaboration with the community and Korinda Prison in Busia is using Nyumba Kumi in the following ways to prevent recidivism:

To proactively prevent crime, BBC first looks at and understands the causes of crime before coming up with strategies. One of the causes of crime BBC has considered is recidivism. This is where offenders repeat offenses or go back to crime after being released. In other words, Recidivism is the commission of crimes by individuals who have already faced criminal sanctions.

As stated in the book “The Silver Bullet” by Major Rtd. Titus Wabwire, in Kenya the rate of recidivism is estimated to be about two-thirds of the released persons according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. While criminal offenders need to face the consequences of their actions, especially through incarceration, BBC observed that the inability of the ex-convicts to re-integrate is a ticking time bomb. Global statistics confirm that the rate of reoffending is high, sometimes higher than 70%. The social and economic costs of the failed reintegration of offenders are a major concern for policy makers around the world. BBC as such looks at factors influencing recidivism as follows;

The Day of the African Child (DAC) was instituted in 1991 by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the OAU in memory of the 16th June 1976 student uprising in Soweto, South Africa. Students then, marched protesting the poor-quality education they received, and demanded learning to be in their languages. The government responded with brutal force killing hundreds of school children.

BBC has formed two teams of boys and girls to prevent the youth from being involved in crime, drug abuse, and other vices and also to prevent abuse and exploitation of Child Domestic Workers. Football is a big industry therefore this venture is also a nexus of the organization to expose the youth to lucrative opportunities nationally and internationally.

Kenya has had several terrorism incidents with very serious consequences since 1975. On 1st March 1975, a bomb was planted in one of the buses of the former Overseas Transport Company (OTC) an international Bus Company in Kenya which killed 30 people. From then on Kenya has suffered a series of attacks by violent extremists with many lives and property destroyed.  In all the attacks youth have been involved as the leading perpetrators and hence continue to be a big threat to the peace and stability of this country.