This paper examines how communities at the urban margins, who are under-protected by the state police, understand police reforms through an examination of the unusual case of street protests in support of a police officer who had killed two young men in Githurai in Nairobi. I explore how the under-protection of communities at the urban margins by the police leads to a reliance on various forms of vigilantism to generate security and justice outcomes. Noting the limitations of community vigilantism, I explore how these communities come to rely on police vigilantism, a form of vigilantism that has received limited attention in African studies. Based on insights generated from data collected in Githurai in March and April 2015, I argue that residents of Githurai protested against the arrest of a local police vigilante, whom they had come to rely on for security, because they considered his deployment of violence against suspected criminals to be justified and also feared that his arrest would expose them to further insecurity. I conclude that police reform efforts should pay attention to the innovations that communities have developed at the grassroots to generate security and justice outcome in absence of reliable protection by the state police.

中文翻译：

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“小偷不应该生活在人们中间”：内罗毕警察暴力的保护不足和民众支持

本文通过研究支持在内罗毕吉图赖杀害两名年轻男子的警察的不寻常的街头抗议案例，探讨了城市边缘社区如何理解警察改革，这些社区受到州警察的保护不足。我探讨了警察对城市边缘社区的保护不足如何导致依赖各种形式的警惕性来产生安全和正义的结果。注意到社区私刑的局限性，我探讨了这些社区如何依赖警察私刑，这是一种在非洲研究中受到有限关注的私刑形式。根据 2015 年 3 月和 4 月在 Githurai 收集的数据产生的见解，我认为 Githurai 的居民抗议逮捕当地警察义务警员，他们开始依赖他来保障安全，因为他们认为他对犯罪嫌疑人实施暴力是有道理的，而且还担心他的被捕会使他们面临进一步的不安全感。我的结论是，警察改革工作应该关注社区在基层发展的创新，以在没有国家警察可靠保护的情况下产生安全和正义的结果。