海角大神

This post is part of the project chronicling life in Nairobi, Kenya throughout the month of April.

Nairobi has long struggled to shake off the nickname Nairobbery, but Mike Pflanz discovers during a day with a CID detective that most crime figures are falling.

Behind the frosted glass door of an empty office in one of Nairobi鈥檚 largest banks, Corporal Patrick Simiyu is quietly meeting a source.

In February, hackers broke through the Cooperative Bank鈥檚 online security and illegally transferred half-a-million dollars from customers鈥� accounts onto 480 cellphones hooked up to Kenya鈥檚 mobile money scheme, M-Pesa.

When they began withdrawing the cash, computer alerts sounded.

Since then, Mr. Simiyu, 41, has painstakingly been building his case. Trawling records from the phone company, running surveillance on suspects, and partnering closely with the bank鈥檚 own investigations team, today he鈥檚 close to an arrest.

鈥淭hese kinds of electronic crimes, they are something new, something I鈥檝e only really started seeing in the last four or five years,鈥� he told me earlier, in his dimly-lit office at Nairobi鈥檚 Criminal Investigations Division headquarters.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not like the old days when someone would walk into a bank with a gun and steal all the money. People are using computers, the thieves have become much more sophisticated, we have to constantly improve our learning to be ahead of them.鈥�

Born to a poor family of farmers in a small village four hours drive northwest of Nairobi, Simiyu knew he would one day be a policeman here in the capital.

His father, although not wealthy, was an important man, a village elder called upon to arbitrate disputes over stolen livestock, farm boundaries or cheating middlemen.

鈥淲e were not allowed to be in the room for these meetings,鈥� said Simuyu, today a quiet-spoken, methodical man with a quick smile. 鈥淏ut he would tell us stories afterward, I would always offer advice.

鈥淭o be a policeman, for me it was not just about getting employed in a job, it was because it was something I really wanted to do. And I think the dream of doing this job I do now, it started there, with my father, talking about those disputes.鈥�

Twenty years after he first joined up, Simiyu is now a lead detective at the Anti-Fraud and Forensic Investigations department, headquartered in a narrow room decorated in the maroon, navy and cream livery of the Kenya Police.

Neckties, already knotted and ready for court appearances, hung on bent nails. Half-a-dozen metal filing cabinets with busted locks lined the walls. The electricity came and went.

Today, Simiyu鈥檚 working on four cases. The half-million-dollar mobile money fraud. Another involving checks stolen last year which have just turned up being used to pay for electricity bills. A third where a woman was conned out of a $190,000 deposit she put down to buy land that the seller didn鈥檛 own.

And 鈥� the most high-profile 鈥� a huge daylight theft by tricksters disguised as security guards who turned up to a bank masquerading as a team hired to move money, and then calmly walked out with more than $1 million in cash.

Simiyu鈥檚 meeting at the bank this morning was to discuss preparing witnesses for court. From there, we walked up through the city center to the colonial-era courthouse, to drop files off in the chaotic office of the Registrar of Prosecutions, ahead of court hearings tomorrow.

鈥淔or me the most rewarding part of the job is to stand up here in court,鈥� he said. 鈥淭o show the judge the work we have done on a big case, and to secure a conviction.鈥�

The most challenging aspect of his work, he went on, a frown creasing his forehead, was 鈥渢he lack of cooperation from the public and even from the victims themselves鈥�.

鈥淭hey think you can fix their problems overnight,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut it takes long. Even getting the information we need from the public is hard. I think people out there don鈥檛 think good things about policemen.鈥�

He鈥檚 not wrong. The Kenya Police, as a whole, has an awful reputation. Polls consistently find that the public rates the police as the most corrupt public servants in the country.

Recent high-profile cases of armed officers shooting dead suspected robbers 鈥� on one occasion in full view of commuters stuck in a morning traffic jam 鈥� have prompted fresh accusations of heavy-handedness (the officers involved are under investigation).

At least one private security firm here plans to form its own "CSI" force for hire after too many prosecutions fail due to a lack of decent evidence collected by police investigators. The courts themselves are swamped, with 900,000 outstanding cases, stretching back as far as 1989.

鈥淭here are these issues, but I have to say a lot of it is media exaggeration,鈥� said DCIO Peter Mabeya, Simuyu鈥檚 boss and the head of CID in Nairobi.

鈥淲hy all these negative stories? Where is the balance, where is the story about the crime rates falling? Nairobi鈥檚 not that bad today, it鈥檚 the same as many other cities.鈥�

A look at annual reports of crime figures from the Kenya Police would largely support that statement, with some clear exceptions.

Between 2006 and 2010, homicide rose 3 percent, including a 10 percent jump in murders. Economic crimes, like the ones Simiyu鈥檚 investigating, shot up 39 percent.

But run your eyes down the spreadsheet comparing the latest crime rates with earlier years, and the percentage drops far outweigh the percentage rises. Violent robbery fell 36 percent nationwide in that four-year period. Home invasions were down 25 percent, rape was down 27 percent and car theft was down 32 percent.

Although it鈥檚 not easy to verify those figures, anecdotally there are positive reports, too. Two friends who learned I was researching this article told me stories, of which they had firsthand knowledge, of detectives traveling across the country investigating cases. Both led to arrests.

鈥淚鈥檒l be honest, I was a bit surprised that these guys were actually doing their jobs,鈥� one of my friends told me.

The gap between the perception and the reality of his job worries Simiyu. He鈥檚 set up a fund, with money from his own pocket, to help poor kids in his village through school. Each year, he runs a football tournament for youngsters, 鈥渢o help them focus and not be idle鈥�, he said.

鈥淩eally, I want to try to change the idea that the police are not there to help, but in fact to harass, the public,鈥� he said. 鈥淪ometimes, there are bad apples in a barrel. It seems a shame to me that we are all tarred with this same brush.鈥�