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Restore justice, stamp out gang brutality

Details

Published on Saturday, 20 February 2010 22:12

The very mention of Mungiki, Sungu Sungu, Taliban, Chinkororo, Sabaot Land Defence Force and other proscribed group often sends shivers down the spines of any peace-loving Kenyan.

That is why the torching of 26 homesteads in the sleepy Bokeire Village in Bonchari Constituency on Thursday as well as the lynching of two people in Homa Bay District did not provide very good Press.

In fact, coming two days after the United Nations elevated its Nairobi duty station to ‘B’ status on account of improved health and security benchmarks should be cause for concern.

Increasingly, elderly people have been murdered in the greater Gusii region and Coast Province on the pretext they practice sorcery, when the real reason is often veiled land grabbing. Other mobs in Central Province have pointed an accusing finger at ‘weak’ laws and a partisan police force to batter and torch robbery suspects and their houses.

This lawlessness has gone on too long and must be reined in. Complacency in the police force needs to be addressed with better pay and perks while runaway vigilantism needs tackling.

The word vigilante was first used in 1856 and was originally Spanish for watchman or guard. The vigilante was a member of a volunteer committee organised to tackle crime and dole out summary punishment.

This was particularly welcome where processes of law were found to be inadequate.

Granted, vigilante groups are formed as bulwarks of safety for local communities. But as the saying goes, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Master extortionists

Many such groups have turned against the communities they were purportedly set out to defend. They have replaced formal security organs as they metamorphose into greedy, armed brigands roaming our streets and village paths as master extortionists and executioners. They have become the new face of impunity as they levy protection fees and have become complainant, prosecutor, judge and jury.

The Government needs to urgently restore credibility of the police force and stamp out criminals masquerading as security groups.

As we have recommended before in these pages, no amount of hardware and sophisticated armaments can take the place of solid intelligence.

Revenge attacks would not take place on the scale witnessed in Bonchari last week and in Murang’a several months ago if there was prior information of the impending activity, involving hundreds of villagers.

The brutality meted out by vigilantes under the pretext of enforcing of law and order, will feed the cycle of violence monster and lead to a complete tearing of the very fabric of society.

Organised thuggery or vigilantism is well known and entrenched in various forms and locations over the past 20 years. Their notoriety peaked in January 2008, when gangs from all corners of the country fought against each other, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake.

The Government has at various times accommodated and tolerated such outfits despite knowing that they are often sponsored by personalities exploiting the poverty that pushes youths into becoming gang members.

Soon the thin line between community policing and criminality is crossed and the delinquents become parasites that extort money from communities.

Also of concern were the terror tactics employed by security forces from outfits such as the police hit squad known as Kwekwe — formed to combat emergence of Mungiki. The squad was disbanded.

Institutional surgery

There is also renewed impetus to reform institutions of governance beginning with the Judiciary, Police and Corrective services.

Sections of society, however, continue to feel that the pace of institutional surgery is too slow and have taken the law into their own hands, often with barbaric blood-letting. Knee-jerk responses by the State are the only incentive gangs and militias need to set up base and thrive.

The security services need to literally reclaim their turf and ensure a database of raw intelligence so that response time to the butchery and property destruction by vigilantes is targeted and effective.