Nairobi’s most dangerous areas

Nairobi’s most dangerous neighbourhoods have been identified in a government-commissioned survey by the independent Security Research and Information Centre.

The report's findings are being studied by the city's police and policy makers, and Nairobi residents and visitors have been advised to avoid the listed areas where possible.

The report locates the majority of Nairobi's most notorious districts for robberies, both by day and night, in sections of central-east areas such as Kayole, Jericho, Soweto and Lunga Lunga slums, as well as the centre-west area of Kibera.

Makadara and Mukuru kwa Reuben slums, also in the centre-east, were identified as hubs for the illegal trade in firearms, as was the Kongo area of the western suburb Dagoretti.

Affluent suburbs in southern Nairobi such as South C and Westlands were identified with night robberies targeting motorists.

Sexual crimes featured the least in the survey, attributed to the fact that "most victims rarely report them due to fear of stigmatisation, fear of victimisation and need to keep family dignity.”

The report has created a backlash from some residents of the listed areas, as well as generating complaints from others who ask why the police are not doing more to tackle crime in the city’s dangerous areas, the locations of which they say were already well-known.