Youth Safety Awareness Initiative popularly known by its brand name, Crime Si Poa® was founded in 2007 by its current Executive Director Pete Ouko while on death-row for a wrongful conviction. 

Context of our Work 

Around the world, access to justice for the poor and underrepresented remains a mirage. Alarming high crime and youth incarceration rates in Kenya, where 75% of prisoners are below 30 years of age inspired Peter to seek to build a movement that directly dealt with access to justice, crime, and delinquency.  There was hope. Leveraging on the dedicated support from the Kenya Prisons Service, the organization started anti-crime advocacy both in prison and in underserved communities. We further set up resource centers within prisons where prisoners received life skills as well as entrepreneurship training. 

To help reduce recidivism by ex-offenders, Crime Si Poa® advocated for prisoners to be allowed to open bank accounts to save income earned from the prison-based social enterprises. Formally registered as an NGO (Non-Government Organization) in 2010, the organization started its formal operations in 2019 after Peter’s release and has since made noteworthy progress, currently running impactful activities in 16 prisons, 27 schools and communities spread across 10 major counties in Kenya. 

The organization continues to build proximate youth leadership and amplify young people’s voices through core thematic areas of: Access to justice, Community engagement and Prisons and reintegration.