Weeks into the spate of violence rocking Bungoma and Busia counties, only a dozen suspects have been charged in court over the matter.

Seven of them are held on one offence, a robbery against one Ms Rukia Naskanda in Bungoma’s Kware village. Another five are answering robbery and murder charges in Busia.

But between the police and media reports, the public knows of dozens of terror gang attacks in the two counties in the last three weeks alone. Ten people are dead and more than 100 injured. It beggars belief that three weeks of investigations would not have unearthed a richer trove of credible evidence and charge-able suspects.

We fear police investigators are falling to far behind the crime wave and that, as has been the case in similar instances in the past, mob justice make it impossible to unravel this matter.

We have only to see the parallels between how events are unfolding in western Kenya and the Mungiki events that led to the Mathira killings and the SLDF atrocities in Mt Elgon District. The police not only need better intelligence about these sorts of threats, but also better ways of responding to the unique investigative challenges they present.

Over 300 people had been arrested in police swoops conducted in response to the heavy political and public pressure on this matter. However, all but 22 were quickly released without charge.

Another ten presented before a judge were released on a personal bond to keep the peace after police filed an affidavit admitting they did not have enough evidence to charge them with any offence.

The affidavit identified the men as “habitual criminals” in and out of Bungoma courts on petty offences and robberies. We see some worrying patterns here as regards ‘investigations’: The first is a tendency to round up the usual suspects to demonstrate something is being done about a situation. This is largely a waste of time and resources if seen strictly in the light of the active investigation.

The only value it has is peripheral, removing offenders who would have been up to no good from the streets for a brief moment. Unless the manpower to properly process and interrogate all these people is brought together, the best police can hope for is to parade their catch before a magistrate and have them released on a personal ‘good behaviour’ bond. Good for PR, but poor crime fighting.

The second is an apparent failure to maintain high investigative standards after a few early arrests. When one or two crimes occur, police have a good chance of finding those involved and bringing them to book.

 This capacity serves them well in day-to-day crime fighting even as they struggle with the resource limitations that make their work challenging. When faced with a larger crime wave, however, like the Mungiki killings, the Mt Elgon militia, the Tana River attacks, terrorism in Garissa and Mandera, and now insecurity in western Kenya, the heavier workload seems to outstrip their capacity. The result is strong cases early on in the process, followed by useless show trials.

Judicious application of resources is needed to avoid these challenges. Police headquarters needs to work out a smart way to supplement the efforts of local officers faced with a sudden surge in crime. Blaming them for failing to prevent crime or supplanting them with experts from Nairobi is not always helpful. Far better to give them the tools and manpower they need to do what they would have otherwise done had it been one or two isolated crimes. Thus crime scene experts, skilled interrogators and experienced prosecutors can be marshalled to the support of local forces.

Consider what progress might have been made in Bungoma and Busia if the 309 people who were arrested were all interrogated properly; if the scenes of the ten murders reported so far were processed professionally; the eight lynchings in retaliation for those killings were also probed for evidentiary value.

If the police don’t find a way to keep up, vigilantes take over. We have seen this in Mathira and elsewhere, with little evidence that innocent people will not be victims of mob injustice. Let’s not allow it to recur in Bungoma and Busia.