Kenyans rush to own firearms as insecurity soars

By Juma Kwayera

KENYA: Increased crime, especially in urban areas, has triggered an unusually high number of private citizens seeking licenses to own firearms.

The upsurge now re-directs the searchlight to long overdue comprehensive police reforms, which the force admits will impact negatively on the coming elections.

Despite the police not providing data on the scramble for firm licensing, the period during which the demand for the certificates peaked phenomenally coincides with the beginning of restructuring of the force that also faces accusations of perpetration of serious crimes.

The reforms have been slow as the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) that is constitutionally mandated to spearhead the restructuring is barely two months old and still in the preliminary process of picking heads of the respective security formations.

Part of the problem lies with the government’s inability to equip security agencies to match modern technology that is continually churning out highly sophisticated criminals, according to Police Spokesman Eric Kiraithe.

The acknowledgement by Kiraithe voices the concerns opinion polls have been raising all along that insecurity and economy top the challenges the electorate want addressed urgently heading into the next election.

While Ipsos-Synovate opinion poll released last month ranks insecurity fourth at 12 per cent to high cost of leaving 39 per cent, corruption 14 per cent and unemployment, Infotrak polls have consistently ranked it among the top three issues of concern to Kenyans.

Kiraithe attributes the runaway demand for guns on slow-pace of police reforms. He would not, however, shed light on the actual number of applications received in the past three years, he says the demand has soared sky-high. Neither would he break down the statistics per region. This is because such information is treated as classified, hence considered prejudicial to national security, if the figures are astronomical.

In socio-economic context, firearm experts aver, the middle and upper class are the most worried about the personal safety, hence recording the highest number people seeking self-protection.

Capt (retired) Simiyu Werunga, a leading consultant on security and proliferation of small arms and light weapons in East Africa explains the rising demand for personal security as a consequence the breakdown in the security machinery from years of neglect and corruption.

Gunpolicy.org, an online magazine that keeps tabs on worldwide injury prevention and ownership policy, estimates that there are 40,000 licensed guns in private hands in Kenya. The rate of private gun ownership in the country, according to Gunpolicy.org, is 6.4 firearms per 100 people.

Capt Werunga estimates that the figure could be much higher as Kenya has in recent years been a corridor for arms trafficking in eastern Africa, including the conflict prone Great Lakes Region.

A joint special report titled Availability of Small Arms and Perceptions of Security in Kenya: An Assessment published in June this year by the Small Arms Survey unit of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies based in Geneva, Switzerland, estimates that between 530,000 and 680,000 firearms are in civilian hands nationally.