APRM • SECOND COUNTRY REVIEW REPORT OF THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA 118. This premium placed on partisan political interests and activities in which political parties are often not the main instruments at the county level has also led to the relative neglect or politicization of the drive toward socioeconomic development and lack of effective delivery of democracy at the grassroots. Members of County Assemblies and Governments are often divided along partisan lines and distracted from effective governance of such volatile domains as the complex manners in which climate change and environmental challenges impact livelihood, poverty, and social coherence. 119. Increasing misalignment between national and county governments in the security architecture of the country has further generated anxieties among the people. Security is not a devolved function, but local communities bear the brunt of insecurity within and across the country’s borders as evidenced by the October 25 2016 Al-Shabaab attack on a Mandera Hotel in which 12 persons were killed while the Country Review was in progress. The evolving system of collaboration and cooperation between national and county administrations has to be firmed up, especially in the context of growing talks about incorporating into the security architecture models of community policing. 120. The youth dimension of intra- and inter-state conflict and security, intermingled with substance abuse, partisan politics, poverty and unemployment, also requires further government and community attention. In this context, youth become easy recruits for partisan, antisocial, and terrorist bands. These issues require urgent attention, along with the incidence of extra-judicial killings, involving the youth as victims more than any other demographic. 3.5.2.2 Challenges 121. As noted correctly in the CSAR, challenges include the following: • Reduction of cross-border conflicts is hampered by porous borders, the proliferation of small arms and light weapons in the region, and the mixing of genuine refugees with criminal elements and terrorists in camps. • Diminishing natural resources such as water and pasture due to climate change force pastoral communities to search further, often across borders where they come into conflict with local communities. • Regional peace-building mechanisms take long to resolve disputes over international boundaries. Within Kenya, conflict between groups is triggered by political manipulation of grievances and perception of inequality and marginalisation. • Illegal groups and criminal gangs particularly in poor urban neighbourhoods are a source of crime and lack of peaceful coexistence between groups. • Failures to implement recommendations of various commissions that have investigated the underlying causes of violence deepen perceptions of impunity. | 89 |