AFRICANEWS

KENYA

Insecurity in Central Province

Kenya's central province districts of Kiambu and Murang'a have recently had numerous gang raids on business premises and private homes. As the violence continues, our correspondent asks why the police appear lax to confront the criminals.

I peeped through the cracks of my door and saw hooded men outside. They had big torches and were holding things that looked like 'rungus' (clubs), axes and matchets. Mr S.K. Njuguna, an elderly shopkeeper at Kibichoi in Kenya's Kiambu district was quoted saying last September in a local paper, the East Africa Standard.

"They hit my door and I shouted at them to let me open. But they hit again and it broke down. One man entered (the shop) through the hole, holding an axe. I told him to take anything and not to harm me. He said I would be all right if I was co-operative. He asked for money. I gave him Ksh 10,000 He had a bright torch on my eyes all the time. Then he started taking packets of cigarettes and throwing them outside to his colleagues. He ransacked (through the shop) and then left through the same hole at the door. I could hear screams from other shops and outside." Mr Njuguna was speaking to journalists about the events of September night when a gang of fourty plus members armed with an assortment of items violently robbed traders at Kibichoi shopping centre.

On the night of July 22, this year, at Roromo, in Kiambu district, the step brothers and their neighbour were hacked to death by gangsters after they went to aid a fellow villager whose house the thugs were breaking into. Mr. James Njoroge a son of one of the slain brothers narrated the events before the sordid murder of his father and the others. Loud screaming in the neighbourhood on the fateful night had prompted Mr Njoroge and his father to leave their house and hurry to help their distressed neighbour. The thugs abandoned their mission and turned on the would-be rescuers. The hastily armed villagers retreated. "Everyone went his way in a bid save their lives, but my father fell down and was hacked with an axe several times", said Njoroge.

Violent robbery incidents which became quite rampant since last year in Kenya's capital city, Nairobi, have spilled over into neighbouring Central Province districts, Thika, Murang'a and Kiambu. Heavily armed gangsters are making attacks on the homes and business premises of businessmen in the districts leaving terror bloodshed and death in their wake.

"We are leaving in hell. Never has it been like this before. Never have thugs ruled the people like this here", Mr S. K. Njuguna, the elderly shopkeeper says. The incidents of thuggery in the central Kenya districts, particularly Kiambu have increased as the year nears its end.

The frequency, daring and brutality of the thugs terrorising central province has left the citizenry numb with terror. Bands of fourty plus members descend on a village or trading centre, cut off the power supply and terrorise the residents taking their time totally unafraid. Early September, thugs attacked Komothai village in Kiambu district and terrorised traders for the better part of two hours leaving three people dead. In neighbouring Githiga, thugs attacked thrice in a fortnight (the last attack was made as the residents prepared to bury victims of the thuggery) and left three people dead including a man and his wife.

In some of the attacks taking place in central Kenya, particularly Murang'a district there is an element that points to vendetta killings against business rivals. At Marugua, thugs slit open the throat of a father of four, last October. Nothing was stolen from the man killed on his bed.

In all the thuggery-plagued areas of central Kenya, vigilante groups organised by villagers are no match for the thugs. The thugs who robbed Kibichoi hacked to death two vigilante guards and beat a third one unconscious. Night watchmen are also targets with several being hacked to death for raising the alarm.

In all these central Kenya areas enveloped by insecurity dissatisfaction is rife with police action to end the crime. Residents of affected areas blame the rising crime on police complacency that nears conspiracy with the thugs. "The thugs would rob and maim the same way they are doing if there were no police in the district", a bitter villager from Maragua in Murang'a district says. According to the villager, police always arrive at the scene of a crime long after the criminals have left regardless of how long the thugs take to complete their mission.

"Suspects should not be released (irregularly) before they are taken to court. It sets a dangerous precedence and leaves the citizenry at their (thugs) mercy". Ms Grace Wambui who has been attacked by thugs thrice took issue with members of the public who bribe policemen to buy freedom for their relatives who are in police custody for their criminal activities.

Kenyan police see the crime problem affecting the central Kenya districts, particularly Kiambu as a manifestation of social disparities in an elite district with a lot of city influence. Hoards of jobless idle and thus disillusioned youth who throng the shopping centres of the districts can be easily be distracted to crime as there are many rich business people and professionals residing in the districts especially Kiambu.

Commenting on the insecurity in central Kenya a columnist in a local newspaper, the East African Standard bolstered up the police version by calling on the Kenyan government to treat the Kiambu insecurity with a lot more jobs and a little less of public guns.

Kenyan police chief Shedrack Kiruki has on several occasions declared total war on violent criminals anywhere in the country. But so far the public efforts are yet to bear any success.

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