Commentaries
SUNGU SUNGU, CHINKORORO AND AMACHUMA : GET THE FACTS RIGHT
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- Published on Tuesday, 19 May 2009 06:06
In the list of illegal criminal groups proscribed by the government, together with the SLDF, mungiki and others, are three rather curious entries – sungusungu, chinkororo and amachuma. these three are alleged to be engaged in criminal activities in the greater kisii region. For whatever reason these three names were included in the list, the general public’s understanding is that they are criminal gangs and that they share all or almost all the characteristics of the other groups in the list. If this was the understanding of the government officials who included these names in the list, then they had absolutely no idea what these three names stand for. Even the media on whose coverage these officials probably relied to lump these three together with those others is sometimes clueless as to what these names mean. In some cases, the two terms chinkororo and sungusungu are used interchangeably suggesting that they are one and the same group. Well, they are not. Infact, in the true sense of the term, sungusungu and amachuma are not groups.
Chinkororo is a term used to describe the traditional warriors of the abagusii community much like the morans of the maasai community. They are to be found in borabu and gucha districts which border the two communities the abagusii have since time immemorial had adversarial relations with, namely the kipsigis and the maasai. Chinkororo are mobilized if and only when there is an ethnic conflict and the government is not quick enough to provide security. They protect the abagusii families living along the two districts’ borders, pursue stolen livestock and sometimes – admittedly – engage in acts of cattle rustling in order to compesate those whose livestock is stolen but never recovered.
More recently, chinkororo - just like the maasai morans - have proved popular as watchmen in the urban areas of the greater kisii district. Because the local community considers their role noble and crucial to the community’s security, chinkororo enjoy immense goodwill all over Gusii. It is this goodwill that former cabinet minister Mr Simeon Nyachae sought to ride on in the run up to the last general election when he paraded youth from his constituency clad in red “shukas” claiming they were chinkororo and using them to attack the ODM team at the nyamarambe rally. In reality, chinkororo are apolitical and are neither allied nor affiliated to any political group. Never the less, the nyamarambe incident had a devastating impact on chinkororo’s reputation as it created the impression that they are a gang of thugs for hire. In some quarters, they ended up being perceived as pro PNU.
On the other hand, sungusungu is a term used to describe any mob of youth who pursue and punish suspected criminals. It is a phenomenon that resulted from the government’s ineptitude in providing security as well as an unprecedented escalation of insecurity in Gusii a couple of years ago. With heavily armed and well organized criminal gangs that not only robbed but also raped and murdered their victims, business people and residents of Gusii were sitting ducks. These gangs acted with total impunity because they were well connected too. Among the participants and beneficiaries of their nefarious activities were civic leaders, policemen and teachers. With hardly any protection from the police, frustrated residents began lynching suspected criminals and thus, sungusungu was born.
However sungusungu, unlike the likes of the SLDF and mungiki, is not one group with structures and defined chains of command. Just like the mob “necklacing” a pickpocket in one street has no connection to another stoning a robber in the next street, the sungusungu in one village is in no way connected to that in the next village. Sungusungu is therefore a term rather than “an organised criminal gang”. Each of these “sungusungus” is a creation of the residents of the village or estate within which they operate. The residents voluntarily contribute funds for the purchase of phones, weapons and flashlights as well as paying a monthly allowance to the youth who volunteer to patrol their neighbourhoods at night. It is precisely for this reason that local politicians dare not speak against the sungusungu executions even in the face of a nationwide outcry because doing so would cost them votes. Extra judicial as the punishments they mete out may be, truth be told, the sungusungu phenomenon has been responsible for a drastic reduction of crime in Gusii.
The inclusion of “amachuma” in that list is the most puzzling. There has never been any group by that name whatsoever. The term “richuma” in ekegusii language comes from the Swahili word “chuma”(metal). Infact, it is not proper ekegusii. It is slang and only found its way into the language’s vocabulary recently. It loosely translates to “a village tough”. “amachuma” is the plural of “richuma”. It is a term that is widely used to mean any tough youth but more specifically those that hang around politicians during campaigns. Claiming that there is an organized criminal gang operating in Gusii by the name “amachuma” is akin to claiming the existence of one operating all over the country by the name “majambazi”, “wahuni” or even “maboys”.
There is no doubt that some of the acts of both sungusungu and chinkororo are criminal in nature and the concerns of those aggrieved by them need to be attended to but more importantly, the true nature of these two, their motivation and the unique circumstances that feed and justify their existence must be taken into account when dealing with them. Some of the features that distinguish them from those other groups they’ve been lumped together with include the fact that: they do not posses any fire arms; they have no defined hierarchical structure; membership in them is voluntary; no oaths and related rituals are performed; they do not engage in extortion and both enjoy the wider public’s goodwill and support. A ruthless operation like the ones visited upon both the SLDF and mungiki would therefore be counter-productive. Providing the residents with quick and effective security solutions would be a sure way of ensuring these two die a natural death.
