Sometimes people are immortalised in the news for all the wrong reasons, and Felix Nyangaga Otuko is one such. Reason? He barricaded himself with his wife and innocent eight-month-old daughter in a three-storey flat and engaged police in a night-long gun battle in a built-up, crowded city neighbourhood.
Sadly, he won’t be there to speak for himself as he one of the terror suspects who lived by the gun and grenade and died by the same. However, not before leaving his wife as a casualty and six police officers injured on Sunday morning during an operation in Nairobi’s Githurai Estate.
The sound of gunfire and grenade explosions through the densely populated neighbourhood punctuated a grim fortnight that has seen concern over insecurity addressed from the boardroom and lawns of State House Nairobi by no less than the President, various news conferences by Deputy President William Ruto, the Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo, clerics, wananchi and even the United Nations.
It has been a bumpy start to the Jubilee Alliance ride as gun-related violence has exploded in the city of Nairobi, the sparsely populated Mandera and Wajir and the farming communities of Busia and Bungoma.
And each of the leaders has been categorical that the rest of Kenya shall not be held to ransom by a trigger-happy few, with an unclear agenda.
It has seen long-serving officers shuffled, plainclothes police officers board matatus in routes notorious for public service vehicle car jackings and a declaration of war against crime by boosting the police kitty by an initial Sh4 billion and an undertaking to recruit more uniformed officers and Intelligence operatives.
Only time will tell whether these measures will turn the tide of a messy and unnecessary distraction to nation-building so soon after a historic and expensive general election.
Blazing glory
However, the emergence of vigilante squads in Western Kenya targeting people they claim to be suspected members of the killer squads is a worrying angle that needs tackling.
This is also the case in the inter-clan feuds in Mandera county, that have sent hundreds of panic-stricken villagers scurrying from their homes for fear of more attacks.
Such revenge attacks have been recorded in Baringo, Samburu, Kuria Pokot, Kisii, Tana Delta and Turkana counties where bands of heavily armed bandits set out to recover stolen livestock or avenge fellow warriors’ deaths.
Even the concept of having a standing army of warriors in this digital age is misplaced and anachronistic in itself. More so since there is a government willing and ready to provide for the security needs of all citizens.
Mr Nyangaga may have gone down in his version of “gun-blazing glory”, but it was police officers who caught up with his terror activities. It was not left to the hands of his neighbours seeking to lynch him.
There is no room in democracy for vigilantism or revenge/honour killings. There is a supreme law in place to try wrongdoers, arbitrate electoral matters, boundary disputes, commercial disputes falling under the Republic of Kenya.
