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Resident under siege as thugs run amok

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Published on Monday, 04 June 2007 00:53

Violent crime has shot to alarming levels in Kisii, Nyamira and Gucha districts. A day hardly passes without robbers either shooting dead or maiming someone. In the past three weeks alone, two people have been shot dead and a suspected thug lynched. Residents are now living in fear and local leaders have challenged police to say if they have lost control to thugs. Those whose homes have been broken into say the thugs knock on their doors posing as police officers on patrol. They also wear police or military uniform to confuse their victims. Two days after Christmas armed robbers ambushed a cashier as he walked to a local bank from a supermarket. The thugs and police officers shot at each other and a woman, Josephine Kemunto, who died instantly, was caught in the crossfire. The public cornered one of them and handed him over to the police. He died later from what police termed beating by the public. A day later three people armed with AK-47 riffles and dressed in police uniforms shot dead a schoolboy, Duncan Omuya Aburi. The 20-year-old was shot a mere 500m from his parents’ home at Gekomu estate. During his burial on Monday, speakers asked the Nyanza PPO to take boy’s killing seriously. "We suspect foul-play by the police. Claims by the three witnesses who saw the deceased being shot that the killers behaved like police officers must be investigated," a relative said. The mourners also asked the PPO to look into claims by a chang’aa brewer that moments before the boy was shot, three officers had stormed her house to demand for a bribe. As she went to look for the money, the officers walked away with a five-litre jerrican of chang’aa. She says she later heard a gunshot only to learn later that the boy, who was her neighbour, had been shot dead. The Kisii District security committee, under the chairmanship of the DC Mr Abdilahi Leloon, has exonerated itself from blame for the insecurity. The DC denied that AP were involved in the boy’s shooting. "We have established that the cartridge recovered from the scene was fired from an AK47 riffle, but records at our armory do not indicate any of the officers assigned night patrols had the only AK47 meant for the APs," said the DC. He said anybody found guilty would be disciplined. The area DCIO, Mr Job Kirui, also supports the DC’s explanation. "Thugs are now more clever. They can dress like the police and disguise them as officers on night patrols while carrying out their ill missions," said Kirui. But as the security team tried to alley fears among the locals, more robbery incidents were reported and at least three suspects, described as the most wanted gangsters by Kisii police, were arrested. One was a woman. The officers, who raided a rented room at Nyamataro estate, also recovered a pistol that had been stolen from an Administration Police officer last week. They also injured the officer. Kisii deputy police boss Chemonges Ndiema said one of the suspects escaped on spotting the officers and manhunt was on for him. Ndiema, speaking to journalists in his office, described the three gangsters as jailbirds who were released from prison in November. In a related incident, a businessman is admitted at Kisii District Hospital after being shot by armed gangsters at Marani shopping centre on Wednesday night. Isaac Bitange Mogere was shot in the abdomen by the gangsters, who had broken into his house. They left without stealing anything. Yesterday morning doctors were still working to remove the bullet from his abdomen. Local leaders have protested at the sate of insecurity. "Is Kisii town under curfew from thugs? asked Nyaribari Masaba MP Dr Hezron Manduku. He says residents have become so fearful that businesses close as earlier as 6pm. "How come in almost all incidents guns are used? The police owe us an explanation for what is happening to our people every day," says assistant minister Joel Onyancha.