CRIME AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEMS IN AFRICA-ENHANCING HUMAN SECURITY

This summary report details a seminar held on November 4, 2009, organized by the African Human Security Initiative (AHSI) and the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). The event focused on the challenges facing criminal justice systems in Africa, with a particular emphasis on East Africa, including issues of police militarization, judicial inefficiency, and the lack of political will for systemic reform.

• Criminal justice reforms in Kenya are characterized as piecemeal and fragmented, evidenced by the submission of three separate task force reports on police, judiciary, and prisons to the president on November 3, 2009.
• The justice system in East Africa is described as sluggish, with one cited case taking 24 years to conclude, starting in 1984 and ending in 2008.
• In some countries, such as Uganda, the police force is highly militarized, which is noted to undermine professional conduct. Additionally, the term 'safe houses' is subverted in Uganda to refer to torture chambers rather than places of safety for victims.
• There is a perceived lack of incentive for presidents to reform criminal justice systems, and a general consensus that security forces in East Africa protect democracy without practicing it.
• Concerns were raised regarding the training of police to resolve local disputes (such as 'chicken thefts') to prevent clogging the system, as giving 'trigger happy' police the role of judge and jury is viewed as problematic.

APA

Institute for Security Studies (2009). CRIME AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEMS IN AFRICA-ENHANCING HUMAN SECURITY. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/4NOV09REPORT.PDF

Chicago

Institute for Security Studies. CRIME AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEMS IN AFRICA-ENHANCING HUMAN SECURITY. 2009. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/4NOV09REPORT.PDF.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Institute for Security Studies |title=CRIME AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEMS IN AFRICA-ENHANCING HUMAN SECURITY |date=4 November 2009 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/4NOV09REPORT.PDF |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{instituteforsecuritystudies2009crime, author = {{Institute for Security Studies}}, title = {{CRIME AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEMS IN AFRICA-ENHANCING HUMAN SECURITY}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2009}, month = nov, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/4NOV09REPORT.PDF}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }